It’s as if the outside world conspired to rob Yanshuei (鹽水) of its importance and prosperity.
As waterways filled with silt, access to the ocean which had made it possible for this little town, several kilometers from the sea in the northern part of Tainan, to become a major entrepot was lost. The north-south railway, a key driver of economic development during the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule, never arrived. Then, in the 1970s, the sugar industry went into terminal decline.
Like Taiwan’s other old settlements, Yanshuei used to be a walled town. The defensive barrier is long
It’s easy to forget about Singang (新港) in Chiayi County, even though it plays a key role in one of the world’s largest annual religious events.
Since 1988, the multi-day parade that celebrates the birthday of the sea goddess Matsu (媽祖) has stopped at Singang’s Fengtian Temple (奉天宮). Each spring, hard-core pilgrims set out from Dajia Jenn Lann Temple (大甲鎮瀾宮) in Taichung. They walk southward as far as Singang, then begin the return leg of their epic journey.
Some years back, I visited Fengtian Temple a couple of times, and did a bit of exploring in the streets near that shrine.
All that’s left of the Yoshino Shinto Shrine are a stele and the ruined bases of three stone lanterns. In place now is an arts village promoting Hakka and Aboriginal culture, a wet market and the Qingfeng City God Temple (慶豐城隍廟), which was established in 2005.
The overlay of cultures underscores the tempestuous history of this part of Jian Township (吉安) in Hualien County, which saw the removal of the original Amis inhabitants after the Cikasuan Incident of 1908 and the establishment of Taiwan’s first government-sponsored Japanese immigrant village of Yoshino in 1910. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) destroyed the shrine