The Taipei City Walls () were constructed in 1884 in

Taipeh Prefecture Taipeh Prefecture () was a Qing dynasty prefecture created from the northern part of Taiwan Prefecture, Qing-era Taiwan in 1875, while the island was still part of Fujian Province. It consisted of a region surrounding modern-day Taipei, including ...

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 ...

Qing dynasty 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-speak ...

(modern-day

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

). Shortly after the Qing dynasty established Taipeh Prefecture in 1875, Prefect Chen Hsing-chü (陳星聚) ordered the foundation of a new prefectural capital with enclosing walls in 1879. However the soil proved too soft to support so heavy a structure, and the project was halted. Subsequently, governor of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

Cen Yu-ying (岑毓英) and Taiwan magistrate Liu Ao (劉璈) undertook successive surveys to determine the proper location of the wall's foundations. Craftsmen were recruited for the construction in 1882, and the wall was completed in 1884. Nearly five kilometers in length, it could be accessed by five

gates Gates is the plural of gate, a point of entry to a space which is enclosed by walls. It may also refer to: People * Gates (surname), various people with the last name * Gates Brown (1939-2013), American Major League Baseball player * Gates McFadde ...

: , ,

Taipei North Gate Constructed in 1884, Taipei North Gate (), formally Cheng'en Gate (), is the best-preserved gate of the Walls of Taipei, and is a National Monument of Taiwan. Its design is a 2-story closed blockhouse of solid construction with traditional Chinese ...

, and . The North Gate, the Auxiliary South Gate, and the buttresses of the East Gate were of particularly exquisite design. In the first years of the Japanese colonial rule (ca. 1895), the city's walls and the West Gate were destroyed as part of the city's restructuring plan. After the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the

Republic of China 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 northeast ...

in 1945, the East, South, and Auxiliary South Gates were rebuilt, but the original appearances were not maintained. The North Gate alone retains its original appearance. Its design is a 2-story closed blockhouse of solid construction with traditional Chinese wooden roof truss and streamlined carved ornamentations.

Gallery

Image:北門夜拍一.jpg, The North Gate at night Image:Taipeh Jingfu Gate 4.jpg, The East Gate Image:臺北府城─北門、東門、南門、小南門2.jpg, The South Gate Image:Little South Gate 20100808a.jpg, The Auxiliary South Gate

References

* *

External links

* {{coord missing, Taiwan 1884 establishments in China Buildings and structures completed in 1884 Buildings and structures in Taipei

History of Taipei National monuments of Taiwan

Gallery

See also

References

References

External links