Besides the hustle and bustle of the 老街Old Street, there are many tourist attractions in Danshui, e.g., the Little White House, Ft Santo Domingo, Fisherman's Wharf, Hobe Gun Fort, Danshui Presbyterian Church, etc. There are many lesser-known yet no less important sites such as the three major temples, 媽祖宮, 龍山寺, and 清水祖師廟, plus the 蘇府王爺廟 [described in the last post]. Then there are the always overlooked sites, for example, 淡江中学Tamkang High School and the nearby Foreigners' Cemetery, the Taipei County Martyrs' Memorial, etc. Here we'll offer a quick introduction to these sites and more:
Tamkang High School was started in 1882 by Dr George Leslie Mackay as 牛津學堂the Oxford College. It was formally established and moved to the present site by his son 偕叡廉博士 in 1925. This is the gym, at the end of a long walkway from the front gate:
The walkway is paved with red bricks with some old "撒木耳煉瓦會社Samuel and Samuel Co" bricks embedded, most likely salvaged from other buildings from the 1920s.
Inside the gym, you'll see the portraits of two boxing champions, [l] Jake Martinez (1955-56) and [r] Juan Lazcano (1950-53) on the wall:
During the infamous 228 Incident (1947), one of the students was shot and killed near the post office on Chung Cheng Road. The school principal and two teachers were also arrested and murdered. Here is a memorial on campus:
There are also other landmarks, e.g., the first rugby field in Taiwan, the bell tower, and the 八角耬 (for more, see
here by Patrick Cowsill). And near the gym, there is a Mackay family cemetery and next to it, the Foreigners' Cemetery (below) where the 17 heads of French fusiliers marins from the Sino-French war in 1884 might have been buried:
Below is the original Oxford College, located within 真理大學 that used to be where the British Consulate was. The land was leased from the Qing in perpetuity until in the late 1970s when it was sold to the university:
Across the street from 真理大學 is of course the 紅毛城Fort Santo Domingo. Going down a steep slope from this area, you'll run into Chung Cheng Road again. And a short distance going north, you'll come across the tree-shaded boulevard into the Danshui Golf Course, famous since the 1920s.
Walking up the blvd, before going into the Golf Course itself and on the right-hand side, there is a footpath leading up to a new addition, the 一滴水記念館:
It is an old house from 福井Fukui Prefecture in Japan, originally built by 水上勉's father. It was dissembled in Japan and re-constructed in Danshui by volunteers, now a cultural exchange center and a library housing the entire work of 水上勉 and 陳舜臣 [both of whom novelists from Japan]:
On the left side of the entry way, there are the well-visited 滬尾砲台Hobe Gun Fort (built by 劉銘傳) and the usually ignored 台北縣忠烈祠Taipei County Martyrs' Memorial.
Some maybe interested to know that this memorial was built to symbolize the victory over the colonial Japan. This Chinese gate (牌坊, above) used to be a Japanese-style roofed gate (only the foundation now remains; the 2 Chinese style stone lions maybe a post-war addition). And the memorial hall was built on the site where the 淡水神社Tansui Jinja was originally located:
223 individuals plus one group of 72 are commemorated in this hall that include the defender of Danshui during the Sino-French war, 孫開華. The group of 72 is first on the list - KMT revolutionary martyrs already memorialized in Canton, China. Inexplicably, the list also contains the names of three Qing officials who vowed to fight and die for Taiwan but ran back to China instead when the Japanese came to take over Taiwan in 1895.
And back to the soon to be totally altered 重建街 area, here is the famed western style 紅樓 (the Red Castle) owned by the 洪Hong family, now a cafe:
It has appeared in many famous paintings of old Danshui. And right below it, in front of the now demolished 白樓 (the White Castle) is the China Berry tree long associated with 木下靜涯Kinoshita Seigai:
Danshui is rapidly changing into a town of all tourism all the time. And in the back side of Danshui MRT Station, the landfill project continues:
Eventually another tourist bridge that goes nowhere similar to the one in Fisherman's Wharf will be built here. The landfill narrows the span of the river that is certain to impede the flow of water from upstream. It will be interesting to see if Taipei is flooded when the next typhoon hits.
There are 400-450 species of birds in Taiwan that include those migrating from northern Asia either arriving in Taiwan for the winter or stopping over, on their way to, e.g., Indonesia.
[Above and below: 鷺鷥white Egret, commonly sighted in riversides and rice paddies, strolling in lady-like grace; there are 6 species of egrets in Taiwan]
[Above and below: 紅臉水雞Common Moorhen found in 紅樹林, known to fuss over their broods]
[Below: 白頭翁 Chinese Bulbul - noisy residents of the woods]
[Above: a Red-faced 番 duck/Muscovy, known to chase after kids]
[Above: a 斑點鶇 Dusky Thrush, most likely from E Siberia]
[Above: a 白腹鶇 Pale Thrush, another visitor from Northeast Asia]
[Above: a 夜鷺 Night Heron - hunts at night often at fish farms much to the chagrin of the farmers]
[Above: a 藍磯鶇 Blue Rock-thrush and below: a very rare migratory 藍尾鴝Red-flanked Bluetail known as "rooftop violinist" for its trilling songs]
[Below: a 樹鵲 Himalayan Tree Pie - usually seen in groups, large and loud residents of parks in Taipei]
[Above: a 爪哇八哥White-vented Myna, this one in a bamboo bush in Danshui; and below: a 五色鳥Muller's Barbet, a loner with feathers of 5 different colors]
[Above: a 翠鳥Kingfisher, aka a flying jewel; and below: a 黃尾鴝Daurian Redstart, another visitor from the north]
The good news is, with planned conservation in Danshui, Guan-du and Taipei, these beautiful birds seem to be making a comeback. We hope the magnificent eagles of 觀音山, all 10 species of them do as well.
