skip to content
primary navigation

Begin content:

Historic Lukang

AUGUST 2000

What leads to happiness? An old Chinese proverb lists four requirements, three of which can remain unmentioned here. The last however is listed as “having the acquaintance of those from your hometown, although living in a distant city”. Such good fortune occurred to a few dozen Taipei residents, who have known each other since their primary school days in the small east coast city of Lukang. Now forty-somethings, these ‘old boys and girls’ organize a yearly trip back to their birthplace.

Although lacking such strong affiliations, my wife and I were fortunate enough to join these expatriate Lukanese on their journey home. One sunny Saturday morning we boarded a KTV equipped Volvo double-decker and took the four hour journey to this city of about 100,000.

Just south of the port of Taichung, Lukang is one of Taiwan’s oldest towns. Established sometime in the 1600’s, it was in its heyday, a flourishing cultural center and a major trading port, accepting migrants from the mainland province of Fukien.

Nowadays due to siltage, the port is non-existent, although it is perhaps some compensation that upon the tidal flats, oysters are cultivated. The local Fisheries museum (485 Fuhsing Road) tells the whole story. Although not actually open to the public, we got in the front door by special arrangement and our guide, known as ‘Lose 4000’, talked us through the well presented exhibits.

After lunch, and with the tide out, we went to see the real thing… only to be confronted by a no-man’s-land of black sand that extended to the horizon. Somewhere beyond it, the oysters were being picked from their ‘maritime vineyards’; row upon row of low bamboo trellis’. Husband and wife teams, swathed from head to toe in colorful cloth to avoid the unrelenting sun, chugged past, in a procession of heavy-duty motorized tricycles, taking the harvest to market. There was the chance for some hands-on experience and we raked the sand, searching for the shellfish.

Then, it was back on board the bus and down the road, over a few kilometers of flatland to spend the evening at a ‘half star’ night club that probably only has it’s equivalent somewhere in the Australian outback. Gracing the concrete shores of a tidal estuary, the establishment could only be described as a shed. Inside, the Lukang expatriates feasted and renewed acquaintances to the accompaniment of KTV. They even had a chance to catch up with their old headmaster who is approaching ninety years of age and still in good health.

Accommodation for the night was at the ‘Lukang Matsu Temple Believer’s Hotel’, a modern high rise structure in the center of town, part hotel, part youth hostel. A double room goes for $900.

Lured from my bed early on Sunday morning, I got an overview of the city proper from the roof. A complicated chequerboard of temples, housing and commercial premises was coming to life. From the dignified and historic to the tacky and new, everything was thrown into the melting pot and woven with narrow streets. These streets were often crooked, as the city’s forefathers believed that ghosts moved in straight lines and crooked thoroughfares would discourage their presence. It also made you wonder what was around the next corner as we spent the day exploring.

Lukang is home to talented artisans and craftsmen, and seeking out their product is a good reason to visit the city. There is also an enviable collection of traditional Chinese houses and Temples. Lungshan temple was first constructed in 1653, ( the first Buddhist temple in Taiwan) and as the city reached it’s zenith as a port, it was twice relocated. The current incarnation dates from 1786. Designed as an imitation of a Sung Dynasty Palace, it became known as ‘Taiwan’s forbidden city’ and features a magnificent wooden ceiling, assembled without nails. It seemed that every surface of the temple was a riot of ornamentation and laden with symbolism.

Hidden away behind Chungshan Road is an imposing mansion, now the Lukang Folk Arts Museum (admittance $130). Designed eighty years ago by the same Japanese architect employed on the Presidential Palace in Taipei, it has a Viennese style (with an oriental twist). The residence’s former owner is the city’s most famous son - Koo Hsien-jung.

Mr. Koo was around in 1895, when the Japanese army established a nearby beach head. Needing a local guide, they enlisted his services and by the time he was done, he had assisted the Japanese Army in not only capturing Taipei, but the whole island of Taiwan. As reward for his services, he gained economic and political influence. Koo died during the occupation and with the arrival of Chiang Kai-shek was exonerated. His son, now one of the most important business men in Taiwan, donated the building to the public in 1973. It now houses more than 6,000 articles such as clothing, classical furniture, laquerware and religious implements.

Adjacent is the old Koo house, an 18th century traditional Chinese structure. Its floor plan is a narrow, double-storied succession of a dozen or so rooms, punctured by two courtyards. Fully furnished, it revealed many insights into life a hundred or more years ago.

A large painting portrays the bride setting out for the groom’s house in her sedan chair, trailing a long convoy of bearers laden with all her furniture and other worldly goods.

One of the bedrooms tells of a wedding ritual. On their first night, the newly-weds would first have to remove a heavy iron pot of rice placed on the bed. It is so heavy that the couple can only move it in tandem, thus teaching the lesson that successful married life is all about cooperation.

Along the wall of another room was a huge wooden trunk. This was the cash-register of yesteryear. Money was slotted in at the top and during the night one of the employees would sleep on top of it for safe keeping. Similarly, ladies of the day used an ornate elongated box with an arched lid as a pillow and stored money and valuables inside.

Not far from the museum, and easily missed, is an old wall built of large pottery urns. In the founding years of Lukang, the emperor of the day suffered a military defeat at the hands of a rival. Realizing that a greater population, would mean a bigger army, he outlined an incentive scheme. If a family had a baby boy they would receive 2 dogs and 2 urns of wine. If it was a girl, the deal would be 2 pigs and 2 urns of wine. After being emptied in celebration, the urns were put to practical use and became a widespread local architectural feature, still imitated in recently constructed buildings.

It is said that you never see women in Lukang. At least in olden times, women of standing were rarely caught sight of, unless you spotted them at home, high up on the ‘daughters balcony’. Screened by a balustrade made of triangulations of thin terra-cotta tiles (like a house of cards), it perhaps symbolizes the city and its veiled treasures. Not yet on the tourist mainstream, Lukang is shy about revealing its delights. But even the slightly determined gaze of a visitor will be rewarded.

To reach Lukang from Taipei turn off the Sun Yat-sen freeway at the Changhua. The city is about 12km away on route 142.