The Tapung Old Fort or Mount Lidong Fort () is a former

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

in Jianshi Township,

Hsinchu County Hsinchu County (Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a county in north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka; with a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the county capital, where ...

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

After the end of

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

and the signing of

Treaty of Shimonoseki The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...

in 1895, the Japanese soldiers quickly spread across Taiwan. Revolts happened in remote mountain areas with the

local people Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

Sakuma Samata General Count was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and 5th Governor-General of Taiwan from 11 April 1906 to May 1915. Biography Sakuma was born in Abu District, Nagato Province (present day Hagi, Yamaguchi), as the younger son of O ...

was named the

Governor-General of Taiwan The governor-general of Taiwan ( ja, 臺灣總督, Taiwan Sōtoku) was the head of the Government-General of Taiwan in the Japanese era (including Formosa and the Pescadores) when they were part of the Empire of Japan, from 1895 to 1945. The Jap ...

on 11 April 1906. He immediately tried to teach the aborigine

Atayal people The Atayal (), also known as the Tayal and the Tayan, are a Taiwanese indigenous people. The Atayal people number around 90,000, approximately 15.9% of Taiwan's total indigenous population, making them the third-largest indigenous group. The pre ...

to follow the government. He began a five-year campaign during which he attacked the aborigines. In 1911, the Japanese army took over Mount Lidong after a heavy war which resulted huge casualties from both sides. The fort was then built in 1912 to protect themselves from the aborigines. Later in that year, two

Atayal Atayal may refer to: * Atayal people * Atayal language The Atayal language is spoken by the Atayal people of Taiwan. Squliq and C’uli’ (Ts’ole’) are two major dialects. Mayrinax and Pa’kuali’, two subdialects of C’uli’, are uniqu ...

tribes united to fight the Japanese attacked the fort during a typhoon. The fort was defeated and a year later the Japanese counter-attacked the tribes. The Japanese then later rebuilt and reinforced the fort.

Architecture

The fort was built on top of Mount Lidong in a quadrangle shape with 8 meters in length and 6 meters in width. It has bastions on the eastern and western sides of the fort as defense measure. The four walls surrounding the fort has 31 loopholes. The walls were made from armored-concrete and clay and the interior side has buttress pillar to further reinforce the structure.http://web.hsinchu.gov.tw/english/cultural/page/heritage.jsp

References

1912 establishments in Taiwan Buildings and structures in Hsinchu County Forts in Taiwan Military installations established in 1912 Tourist attractions in Hsinchu County {{Taiwan-struct-stub

History

Architecture

See also

References