The Eternal Golden Castle (), alternatively but less well known as Erkunshen Battery (), is a defensive

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Anping District Anping District is a district of Tainan, Taiwan. In March 2012, it was named one of the ''Top 10 Small Tourist Towns'' by the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan. It is home to 67,263 people. Name The older place name of Tayouan derives from the et ...

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

History

The castle was built in 1874 and completed on 1876 by the famous

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

official

Shen Baozhen Shen Baozhen (1820–1879), formerly romanized , was an official during the Qing dynasty. Biography Born in Minhou in Fujian province, he obtained the highest degree in the imperial examinations in 1847 and was soon appointed to the Hanl ...

in order to safeguard the coast and to defend the island against Japanese invasions. This military facility saw its first action in the Sino-French war of 1884. When

was ceded to the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

by the

in 1895, the

Taiwanese people Taiwanese people may be generally considered the people of Taiwan who share a common culture, ancestry and speak Taiwanese Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka or indigenous Taiwanese languages as a mother tongue. Taiwanese people may also refer to the i ...

fought under the

Republic of Formosa The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its being taken over by ...

banner against the invading Japanese battleships from this fortress. Under Japanese control this military facility lost its value. Its value is completely lost when during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

the imperial Japanese government sold some of the fort's cannons.

Features

There is a park near the castle grounds where people can enjoy picnics, as well as rental paddle boats for people to sail around the castle. There are occasional music performances in the evening, and actors sometimes fire the last remaining artillery gun in the castle to give visitors a fully immersive experience.

Transportation

By driving: Take the Yongkang Interchange (Exit 319) of Freeway 1 and head in a south-westerly direction. By public transport: Take the TRA to

Tainan Station Tainan () is a railway station in Tainan, Taiwan served by Taiwan Railways Administration. Situated in centre of the old town square of Tainan, Tainan Station is the main station of the city and also one of the major stations along the western ...

, and then take buses 2, 7, 12, and 20 to Ximen bus stop. Then take bus 15 to Miaoshouli, and you should be there in a few minutes.

Ticket prices

There is a

NT$ The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dollars ...

50 (

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.68) fare for each visitor.

References

Bibliography