Hobe Gun Fort 滬尾砲台

Caption: The distant view of Mt Kanon from the ex-battery of Tansui, the suburb of Taihoku

Marc of Taipics.com sends this rare photo of Hobe Gun Fort from the Japanese colonial era (above). Clearly, it had been abandoned and, at some point, occupied by squatters who had built a traditional residential house 三合院 in the court yard. Another photo shows the run-down house:

Source: http://catalog.digitalarchives.tw/item/00/30/e0/3c.html

Two years after the Battle of Fisherman's Wharf, Governor of Taiwan 劉銘傳 Liu Ming-chuan ordered the construction of this fortress [Hobe is the Taiwanese pronunciation of 滬尾, the old name of Tamsui], under the supervision of a German engineer, Lieutenant Max E Hecht. Hecht unfortunately died on the job and was buried in Tamsui Foreigners Cemetery. He was the only deceased with two headstones, one reads "In memoriam Lieut Max Hecht who died in Tamsui on the 19th August 1892 in his 39th year. Ruhe seiner asche. Erected by his friends" and the other, simply "M Hecht".

This gun fort was designed to cover the area where the French warships were deployed in 1884 (below). It was equipped with 4 rear-loaded pieces: two 8-inch Krupp, one 10-inch and another a 12-inch Armstrong.

Source: http://catalog.digitalarchives.tw/item/00/30/e0/45.html

Now fully restored, complete with a museum inside the soldiers' quarters and munition dumps that exhibits the history of the Sino-French war:

 The plague above the main gate, was presented by Liu Ming-chuan
with his calligraphic writing of 北門鎖鑰. 

The court yard with 蓮霧 trees with the barracks/museum in the background