Travel – Historic Tainan – Everyday Dan Bing

I fear I won’t be able to do Tainan justice with its four hundred years of changing occupiers, deep religious roots, and arguably the best traditional foods in Taiwan. After two trips to the city, I was only able to scratch the surface with its roundabouts and narrow, meandering alleys. The history below attempts miserably to explain the establishment and development of the city, the influence of different occupiers and the city’s historical significance.

Complicated History

Tainan, considered perhaps the oldest city in Taiwan, started at Fort Provincia and Fort Zeelandia as administrative strongholds of the Dutch India Company for trade and to establish their claim to the whole of Formosa in the early 1600’s. The Dutch encouraged the Chinese from the mainland to settle near the forts to farm rice and sugar cane but were not quite the most benevolent landlords.

Eventually, the Dutch would be defeated by Koxinga, a Ming loyalist, who intended to establish Formosa as a base for ousted Ming supporters to regroup and return to defeat the Qing Dynasty (sounds familiar…). Unfortunately, Koxinga died a few months later of malaria, so his son took over, but the Kingdom of Tungning would only last two decades. To this day, Koxinga, is still considered the father/liberator/founder of Taiwan.

After his son’s death, there was chaos around succession, so the Qing Dynasty took advantage to seize the island and folded it into its kingdom. The Qing Dynasty would then control Tainan and the island for two hundred years (under frequent rebellions and protests of its misrule) until Taiwan was handed to the Japanese as a concession for China losing the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. Tainan was Taiwan’s most populous city at that time and had served as the capital before and during the occupation. During this time, the Japanese expanded roadways and built modern buildings, including Tainan’s first mall. The Japanese occupied Taiwan for 50 years until the end of World War II, when it was handed over to the Republic of China (the ousted party from China).

All this is to say that one can still see remnants of this complicated history scattered around the city, starting with the remains of Fort Zeelandia in Anping and the Chihkan Tower built on the foundation of Fort Provincia.

City of a Thousand Temples

Beyond the historical and archeological sites, there’s also an abundance of centuries old Taoist and Buddhist temples, including the Mazu temple, and the first Confucian school/temple established in Taiwan during the Kingdom of Tungning. The city of deeply religious citizens contains at least 1,600 officially registered temples and shrines. One can spend an entire day just doing the temple tour in the central part of the city.

Art in the Streets

Tack on Snail Alley to hunt for snail sculptures and tiles tucked into small winding alleys of a residential neighborhood or keep an eye out for unusually ornate manhole covers. Alternatively, checkout Shengnong Street with its old wooden row houses, turned coffee shops and boutique shops.

The city’s architecture does seem to be stuck in a time when it was the center of culture and politics as the capital of Taiwan. Even it’s “modern” buildings look 50’s modern with the exception of its brand new art museum. The Tainan Art Museum Building #2 showcases Taiwanese artists’ range from Taoist religious art to ultra modern abstract installations. We happened to have caught the Year of the Bull collection. The building itself is light and airy.

Street Foods

Last but definitely not least, Tainan is known as a Taiwanese foodie’s paradise. The city is reputed to have the best versions of the Taiwanese classic street foods, such as steamed rice meat bowls (wa gui), steam meat balls (ba wan), milkfish soup, fish ball soup, beef noodle soup, eel noodles, and the Taiwanese spring rolls, just to name a few. The food is nostalgic of simpler times. Walking through streets like Guo Hua road in the Yongkang district, it is just as fun sampling the food as watching every young person Instagramming and vlogging their food experience with high-end camera gear.

I also want to mention Tainan (and most of Taiwan) still retains some of the influences of the Japanese occupation in its food. We stumbled upon an old-school izakaya housed in a century old Japanese wooden building serving up traditional small bites. It turned out it was one of many izakayas dotting the city.

Side Trip: 5 miles Outside of Tainan City Center is Ten Drums Wen Hua Center

If one has kids, Ten Drums could be a fun side trip from Tainan. It is home base for a popular drumming group called Ten Drums where one can catch a show or play in the dilapidated sugar factory that has been converted into a wondrous adventure playground with giant slides, bungee jumping, archery, glass wall climbing, swing sets from 100 feet up, zip lines and more. They will even put you in a burlap sack with a safety helmet just to go down a four story spiral slide. There are also numerous industrial art installations that makes use of the scrap metal from the site.

In addition, next door to Ten Drums is a somewhat surreal museum called the Chimei Museum. The building is built to mimic grand European palaces and houses the largest European collection of art in Taiwan.