Old Pictures of Taipei

My grandma still refers to that area of Tainan as Ginza. Ginza Dori (now Zhong Zheng Rd.) used to be the most prosperous place in Tainan. Tainan canal used to be at the end of the road, where people can take boats to other locations with in the Taijiang lagoon. Now it’s mostly run down, but if you walk along the place there are many unique shops, such as old record stores, coffee houses, dotted along the old street.

Videos from Taiwan in the 1950s. Most of the footage I think are from Taipei, including the presidential palace, the Taipei City North Gate, and streets around today’s Taipei main station. The last scene I am guessing is Sun Moon Lake.

Another photo of Taipei

Original link from: twmemory.org/?p=6121

This is a photo taken in 1917. The famous Wasada university baseball team came to Taiwan aboard the America Maru to Taiwan for a recruitment tour. 1917 was way before when Kano puts Taiwan firmly on Japanese baseball map. They were playing at the baseball field next to today’s Taiwan Museum in Taipei’s 228 memorial park. A local Taiwanese news paper captured this shot.

Side note, the America Maru, completed in 1898, with its sister ships the Nippon Maru and Hong Kong Maru, traveled between Japan, many port cities of China, Honolulu and San Francisco. Dr. Hideyo Noguchi took the American Maru to the US. Dr. Sun Yet-sen had taken the American Maru on one of his escapes. The ship traveled exclusively to Taiwan after 1911.

By 1944, it was assigned to the Imperial Navy as a transport ship. It was sunk 300 KM south-east of Iwo Jima by an American submarine USS Nautilus in March 6th of 1944.

[quote=“hansioux”]

Videos from Taiwan in the 1950s. Most of the footage I think are from Taipei, including the presidential palace, the Taipei City North Gate, and streets around today’s Taipei main station. The last scene I am guessing is Sun Moon Lake.[/quote]

Where is the circle at 3:10 (and a bit earlier) with that lone hill in the background? I can’t wrap my head around that, in Taipei anyway. Was thinking Renai circle looking east.

Anyway the Renai circle seems to have just barely existed even in 1960.

ustdc.blogspot.tw/2008/05/1960-t … 6989224714

hmm… I can’t be sure… but perhaps it’s Yangming mountain, like this view

The editor of that video said he took the materials from this video:

Taiwan : The Face Of Free China - 1960 Educational Film

which probably is also shared somewhere on forumosa.

[quote=“hansioux”]

hmm… I can’t be sure… but perhaps it’s Yangming mountain, like this view[/quote]

It almost looks like an offshore island.

[quote]

which probably is also shared somewhere on forumosa.[/quote]

Don’t think so!

[quote=“hansioux”]hmm… I can’t be sure… but perhaps it’s Yangming mountain, like this view

[/quote]

Yangmingshan is way off in the back. What you see here is Zhongshan N. Rd. with pre-Grand Hotel Yuanshan. Interesting to see how the Jilong River meanders into the Jiantan area. You can also see the canal that’s now covered over by the Xinsheng elevated expressway.

you are right, that’s totally Yuan shan.

From: http://www.twmemory.org/?p=6461

alright, this picture was taken by a Japanese photography named Okawa Isshin (小川 一真) in 1896.

It’s Taipei, but only god know where that is today…

I expect, today, it’s about 1 million per ping. :wink:

Old photos of Hsinchu city.

all photos from:from twmemory.org/?p=6263


East Gate of Hsinchu city in 1934. Japanese were doing a drill of some sort. I think they were firing at the ground near the gate even…


East Gate right after Japanese torn down the wall


East Gate Surroundings.


Taiwan Sotoku after American bombing.

I like this thread. Keep posting guys :slight_smile:

The first IBM computer in Taiwan going down Roosevelt Rd. Apparently being moved to a new building. 1963

http://jasonblog.tw/2014/07/1963-ox-hauls-ibm-punched-card-machine.html

1 Like

明治橋の昔と今

[quote=“sofun”]明治橋の昔と今

[/quote]

This is what you’d call esthetic degeneration. Didn’t MYJ, when he was Taipei mayor, want to re-erect the original bridge somewhere? Whatever happened to that proposal?

[quote=“Incubus”]
This is what you’d call esthetic degeneration. Didn’t MYJ, when he was Taipei mayor, want to re-erect the original bridge somewhere? Whatever happened to that proposal?[/quote]

He was the one who torn it down in the first place in 2002. His promise to rebuild it elsewhere was like a fart as usual. The bridge now lies abandoned as some kind of junk.

[quote=“hansioux”]
Taiwan Sotoku after American bombing.[/quote]

I’m being a little extreme here but I wish We would rip this building down or at least build a new presidential office. It pisses me off that the President is in a building that clearly symbolizes Japan (Nippon)

I’m being a little extreme here but I wish We would rip this building down or at least build a new presidential office. It pisses me off that the President is in a building that clearly symbolizes Japan (Nippon)[/quote]

It symbolizes modernity because this style of architecture is a Dutch style. Most of the architecture in this era was built and designed to be superior than that in Japan proper.

Even a provincial town like Heitou (today’s Pingtong) got a European design. (German?)

All the way to the north of Formosa, in Keelung, architecture is of upmost important. It shapes the mind and life of people. (I think Keelung Station is of a French-looking design maybe.)

1 Like

Holy cow… most of the nice looking buildings in Taiwan are Japanese. What is “Taiwan” anyway? the result of different ethnics under the direction of China, the KMT or Japan, when not Dutch and even Spanish…