Annual Clearwater Master procession

Beware of traffic control, bus lines will be re-routed or even canceled. If coming from Taipei, please do not drive, take the MRT instead. 

Have a great time in Tamsui!

Wrong mountain and river, 1938

A friend posted in facebook this 1938 postcard. Very nice photo indeed except it is not the mountain and river that we Tamsui-lang know of. Not only the mountain profile is entirely wrong, we have never seen corrosion of the mountain to this extent. Plus (1) on the far right, another mountain looms behind while no such mountain exists in Tamsui, (2) the river delta, a prominent landmark, is also gone, and (3) no small fishing sampans in Tamsui River were ever equipped with a sail (only transports with a mid-ship canopy and those from Foochow did).

Even though the caption reads Guyanyin Mountain and Tamsui River, this ain't it.

Tamsui 1960s

The three photos below were taken at the same location (source: Taipics.com) that must be viewed together. A close inspection reveals that they depict Chung-Jian Street 重建街of the 1960s:

Looking to the right with Guan-Yin Mountain looming in the background

Chung-Jian Street is on the left side, barely seen. In the middle of this photo is the Red Castle 紅樓with its flat roof.

Looking straight down Chung-Jian Street

Looking left

This is Chin-Shui Street 清水街, parallel to Chung-Jian Street. In the far background is the Guang-Du 關渡 Gorge, before construction of the Guang-Du Bridge that links Tamsui with Ba-li.

Chung-Jian means re-construction, even though this is the oldest street, once the center of commerce, of Tamsui.