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History

Kaohsiung in 16 moments

Kaohsiung grew from Takau (打狗), a fishing harbour on Taiwan's southwest coast whose Chinese characters literally mean 'beat the dog' but were picked for their sound. One theory traces the name to a Siraya word for a bamboo forest, another to the Makatao people who lived here. The port opened to Western trade in the 1860s and was rebuilt as a modern harbour under Japanese rule. In 1920 the Japanese administration replaced the characters with 高雄, after a place in Kyoto read Takao in Japanese, and Kaohsiung is the Mandarin reading of those same characters.

Read moreSpanish Takao: the Dominicans, the Rosary and the Treaty PortIn 1859 two Spanish Dominicans landed at Takau and founded the church that is now Kaohsiung's Holy Rosary Cathedral, a few years before the harbour opened to foreign trade.

Timeline

  1. Before 1624

    Makatao villages by the bay

    People were living around the bay 4,700 to 5,200 years ago. Before Han Chinese and European settlers arrived, the coast was home to the Makatao, usually grouped with the Siraya peoples of the southwest plains. In the Dutch era the area of today's Fengshan was known as Pongsoya, a group of eight Makatao villages.

  2. 1624–1683

    Dutch Tancoia and the Kingdom of Tungning

    Takau was already a fishing port when the Dutch East India Company ruled southwest Taiwan, and the Dutch called it Tancoia. In 1662 the Ming loyalist Kingdom of Tungning, founded under Koxinga, drove the Dutch out. In 1664 Zheng Jing renamed the village Banlian-chiu, though the name Takau came back in the late 1670s. Fujianese fishermen who settled Cijin built Kaohsiung's first Mazu temple there in 1673.

  3. 1684

    Qing rule and Fongshan County

    After the Qing annexed Taiwan in 1684, the area became Fongshan County, with its seat at Xinglongzhuang, today's Zuoying. Government offices and the county's Confucius temple were built there in the same year.

  4. 1722–1853

    Two walled towns: Zuoying and Fengshan

    Zuoying got an earth wall in 1722, after a rebellion the year before had overrun the unwalled county seat. When the Lin Shuangwen uprising broke through in 1787, the seat moved to Pitou, today's Fengshan, which was ringed with thorny bamboo from 1788. Zuoying was rebuilt in stone in 1826, but the officials never really returned, and in 1853 the seat was formally fixed at Fengshan.

  5. 1859

    Spanish Dominicans land at Takau

    In May 1859 two Spanish Dominican priests, Fernando Sáinz and Ángel Bofurull, sailed from Xiamen with a few Chinese Catholic helpers and landed at Takau, after the 1858 treaties had lifted the ban on missions. In December they bought land at Cianjin and built a thatched mission house, the start of today's Holy Rosary Cathedral.

  6. 1863–1865

    Takau opens as a treaty port

    Under the treaties that followed the Second Opium War, Takau and Keelung opened in 1863 as outer ports for Anping and Tamsui. A customs house opened in Takau on 5 May 1864, and in November 1864 Britain moved its vice-consulate to Takau, raising it to a full consulate in 1865.

  7. 1874–1883

    Consulate, fort and lighthouse

    After the Japanese expedition of 1874 the Qing built a modern fort on Cihou hill at the harbour mouth, armed with Armstrong guns from 1880. The British consulate's brick office at Shaochuantou and its residence on the hill date from the late 1870s, linked by a stone path finished around 1879. British engineers put up the first lighthouse on Cihou hill in 1883.

  8. 1895

    Japanese rule begins

    The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. In October that year Japanese warships fired on the Cihou forts, and Japanese troops occupied them the same day after a brief exchange of fire.

  9. 1900–1912

    Railway, harbour and the birth of Hamasen

    The railway from Takao to Tainan opened in November 1900 from a temporary station, which moved to its permanent site in 1908. The Japanese administration rebuilt the harbour in stages, a first phase from 1908 to 1912 and a second from 1912 to 1937, and used silt dredged from the channel to reclaim new land. That land became Hamasen, named after the two shore railways (hamasen in Japanese) that served the port and fish market, and it had the city's first modern streets, piped water and electricity.

  10. 1920

    Takau becomes 高雄

    In 1920 the Japanese administration changed the characters of the name to 高雄, after a place in Kyoto, read Takao in Japanese. The town became a city in 1924, and in 1939 the city government moved from Hamasen to a new city hall in Yancheng, now the Kaohsiung Museum of History.

  11. 1944–1945

    Wartime bombing and the handover

    Kaohsiung, by then an industrial centre, was heavily bombed by Allied aircraft in 1944 and 1945. On 25 October 1945 control of Taiwan passed to the Republic of China, and Kaohsiung became a provincial city.

  12. 1949

    The navy comes to Zuoying

    Japan had already developed Zuoying as a naval port, and when the Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 the navy moved its headquarters there. Navy families were housed in military dependents' villages around the base, which were meant to be temporary. A 2010 city magazine called Zuoying's the largest surviving military village in Taiwan.

  13. 1960s–1979

    Industry and a special municipality

    An export processing zone was set up in the mid-1960s, and heavy industry followed: China Steel was founded in 1971 and lit its first blast furnace in Siaogang in 1977. The Ten Major Construction Projects of the 1970s also included a Kaohsiung shipyard and an oil refinery. In 1979 Kaohsiung became a special municipality.

  14. 1979

    The Formosa Incident

    On 10 December 1979 a Human Rights Day rally organised by the Formosa Magazine network in central Kaohsiung ended in a clash between demonstrators and security forces, at a time when martial law was still in force. The incident is widely described as a turning point in Taiwan's democratisation, and Formosa Boulevard station takes its name from it.

  15. 2002–2008

    Pier-2 and the MRT

    Empty harbour warehouses in Yancheng opened as the Pier-2 Art Center in March 2002, after artists campaigned to use them. The MRT Red Line opened on 9 March 2008 and the Orange Line on 14 September 2008, with the Dome of Light at their crossing at Formosa Boulevard.

  16. 2010

    City and county merge

    In December 2010 Kaohsiung City merged with Kaohsiung County. Fengshan, Cishan, Meinong and the other county towns became districts of the city.

How history shaped the food

A fishing harbour in Hamasen

Hamasen was built on land reclaimed from the sea, and two shore railways carried fish from the port to the fish market. From the 1930s to the 1960s it was the hub of Kaohsiung's deep-sea fishing, with ice plants and ship-supply shops around the wharves, until the big boats moved to Qianzhen. The fish ball shop beside Daitian Temple has been making balls from black marlin since the 1950s and today buys its fish from Donggang. After the war Teochew migrants settled in Hamasen, some working as dock porters. A cook from Shantou started the dry noodles in lard and garlic at the temple gate.

Dishes: Marlin fish-ball soup · Shantou noodles

Where to taste it: Hamasen Black Marlin Fish Ball King · Hamasen Lu's Shantou Noodles

Where to see it: Gushan Daitian Temple · Takao Railway Museum

Yancheng's trading years

Yancheng's heyday began under Japanese rule, when it held many of the city's theatres, and its International Market, built in 1937, was modelled on Tokyo's Ginza. Being next to the port made the district a place to buy imported goods, and sailors were said to sell smuggled items in the old arcades. In the 1960s the kilometre-long Dagouding market strip was packed with traders, and many of its stalls have been going for six decades or more. The Li family has sold rice-ball soup since 1953, and the duck rice counter at the International Market gate is in its third generation. Trade faded as the city's centre shifted elsewhere, though young residents have recently moved into the old public market.

Dishes: Milkfish rice-noodle soup · Tangyuan (sweet rice-ball soup) · Duck rice · Coffee

Where to taste it: Dagouding Milkfish Rice Noodle Soup · Li Family Tangyuan Soup · Ya Rou Zhen (Duck Zhen) · Hsiao Ti Coffee

Where to see it: Kaohsiung Museum of History · Pier-2 Art Center

Zuoying's military villages and their breakfasts

After 1949 Zuoying's navy villages filled with families from all over mainland China, who cooked their home dishes with Taiwanese ingredients; dumplings were a New Year staple. The city's Zuoying walking guide still lists more than a dozen 'military village cuisine' shops, from clay-oven rolls to Nanjing-style salted duck. One shaobing shop began in Zihjhu New Village and moved to Zuoying Main Road when the village was demolished. Kuan Lai Shun opened in 1988 in Guomao, a former military village, and is known for clay-oven shaobing, hand-made pork buns and salty soy milk. Its founder, though, did not grow up in a village family.

Dishes: Shaobing and soy milk breakfast

Where to taste it: Kuan Lai Shun Breakfast

Where to see it: Guomao Community · Old City of Fongshan County (Zuoying)

Gangshan goat

The farmland of northern Kaohsiung was poor, so families kept goats, and Gangshan became the area's centre for trading, slaughtering and eating them. The town now has dozens of goat restaurants, and because the meat is raised nearby they can serve goat killed the same day. Joes opened in the mid-1950s. Its founder had long sold goat in the market, and Michelin points to its herbal goat-bone broth and goat stir-fried with bitter melon. Gangshan is also known for honey and chilli bean paste.

Dishes: Goat hot pot

Where to taste it: Joes (Gangshan)

Where to see it: Republic of China Air Force Museum

Sugar and bananas

Taiwan's first modern sugar refinery was built at Ciaotou in 1901, with a railway station to carry its sugar, and it ran until 1999. Inland, a branch railway carried sugar cane, rice and bananas out of Cishan from the 1910s until 1978. Bananas were a major export: Taiwan was the world's third-largest exporter in 1939 and dominated Japan's banana imports until 1963, and in 1991 Kaohsiung County had more banana land than any other county. Today both towns draw visitors to their snack shops, such as Ciaotou's migao, steamed in small bowls since 1955, and the pork offal noodles beside Cishan Old Street since 1986.

Dishes: Migao (sticky rice with pork sauce) · Braised pork rice · Pork heart glass-noodle soup · Pan-fried ba-wan (Cishan style)

Where to taste it: Liao Chi Migao · Ciao Zai Tou Huang's Braised Pork Rice (Ciaotou) · Hsiu Ming · Wu Chi Meatballs

Where to see it: Taiwan Sugar Museum (Ciaotou Sugar Refinery) · Cishan Station

Hakka Meinong

Meinong is a Hakka town: its East Gate tower was built in 1755 to guard the village, and Hakka families here made oil-paper umbrellas that sold as far away as Japan. Hakka cooks make flat rice noodles by steaming a thin rice batter in a tray and cutting it into strips, and in southern Taiwan the Hakka call them mien pa ban, after their likeness to a face towel. Tobacco has long been farmed here too, and the Hakka Culture Museum's building borrows the shape of a tobacco-curing shed. Not every kitchen in Meinong is Hakka, though: Ibu Kitchen, next to the Meinong Folk Village, cooks Bunun indigenous dishes with produce from the owner's home in the mountains.

Dishes: Plum-sauce tofu

Where to taste it: Ibu Kitchen

Where to see it: Meinong East Gate Tower · Meinong Hakka Culture Museum

Milk drinks for a hot port city

Papaya milk has been sold in Taiwan for more than sixty years, and shops in Kaohsiung, Changhua and Taichung each claim to have invented it. A local report cited by GVM says milk was scarce in Yancheng about sixty years ago, that blending it with papaya made it popular, and that American servicemen and sailors in the port helped spread the drink. GVM calls the Kaohsiung claim the most likely one but does not settle the question. Black tea with milk has its own long-runner: Lao Chiang, by the Liuhe night market, has served it since 1953 and stays open around the clock.

Dishes: Papaya milk · Black tea with milk

Where to taste it: Kaohsiung Milk King · Lao Chiang Black Tea Milk

Where to see it: Formosa Boulevard Station

Sources