Old Pictures of Taipei

[quote=“hansioux”][quote=“jesus80”][quote=“hansioux”]
That’s not a Japanese soldier by the way. It’s one of those Aiyung, private aboriginal containment militias. The taker of the picture wasn’t sure of the person was an ethic Han or Sinitized Pingpu Aboriginal.[/quote]
What is an Aiyung soldier? I couldn’t find anything in google…[/quote]

Aiyung (隘勇, Barrier Volunteers)

zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9A%98%E5%8B%87

Only has the entry in Chinese. After Qing’s acquisition of west coast Taiwan, the Qing government drew a line, the thóo-gû-kau (土牛溝, Dirt bull ditch), between the Qing territory and the Aboriginal territory. It’s prevents ethnic Han from grabbing and developing Aboriginal owned lands, and at the same time tried to keep the Aboriginals confined and minimize attacks.


Red line depicts thóo-gû-kau of that certain period

However, the divide didn’t really function all that well. Han merchant groups continue to grab lands from the Aboriginals in order to gain access to valuable resources such as deer skin, farm land and camphor. As they do this, the wronged Aboriginal would head hunt according to their tradition. So Han merchant groups would hire militias to secure their interests, and these militias were referred to as Aiyungs.

A famous merchant group is called Jin-Guang-Fu (金廣福), which is a joint Hakka and Holo effort, to develop Saisiyat territory Rakkus, present day Beipu (北埔). It’s a popular tourist spot in Beipu today.

There are many location around Taiwan named after the thóo-gû-kau or Aiyung bases. New Taipei’s Tucheng district (土城) for example, is so named because it was once the line that divides Han and Aboriginals. There are many places named Ai-liao (隘寮) or Ai-men (隘門) around Taiwan, that were militia posts. The Japanese continued the Ai-yung practise for a while until they replaced all militia with regular Japanese police.

By the way, Beipu’s original name, Rakkus, means Camphor trees in Saisiyat. The name Aiyung derived from the first Sinitized name for Beipu, Da-ai Bei-pu (大隘北埔), where Da-ai seems to be the phonetic translation for the Saisiyat legend, Ta’ay, the magical little black people.[/quote]

Fascinating stuff, keep it coming, professor! :slight_smile:

That’s a good, clear explanation (or it sounds like it :smiley:). Thanks a lot.

taiwancon.com/202085/%E5%9C% … 1%A3-2.htm
news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/paper/915869

This one is from the March 1920 edition of National Geography.

By then Taiwan has been under Japanese rule for 25 years. The western railway has been online since 1908. The rail to Alisan has been running since 1911. Taiwan’s sugar began exporting to the US since 1917, and in 1920 they opened a new airport in Pingdong.

The article was written by Alice Ballantine Kirjassoff, who landed in Jilong and proclaimed it the second wettest port in the world. Alice took the rail way to Taipei, where the weather was great. She found Taipei refreshingly modern for an Asian city, but couldn’t get used to the noise of weddings and religious ceremonies.


Unknown gate, perhaps somewhere in Taoyuan.


Atayal or Seediq children taking a music class


Tamsui river near Dadaocheng, where a levee was being built


Tea packaging


Those canon ball looking things are imported opium


Alice referred to them as a Taiwanese Jazz band


Taipei after a Typhoon


Your average Taiwanese village skull rack


Pingpu Aboriginals


Aboriginals carrying water in these huge bamboos

This just popped up on my FB newsfeed and thought it’d be nice to share.

http://www.travelog.me/articles/Taipei_Past_and_Present_See_How_Much_the_City_Has_Changed

This exhibition probably has some good ones. It’s about the old railway line from Taipei to Tamsui.

Nice, will definitely check that out.

Now there’s an app for this…

play.google.com/store/apps/deta … ricalmappp

The app is called Taipei Historical Maps, from Academia Sinica no less. It not only give you old maps, but also can match up historical photos with street view.

They also have one for Tainan.

Taipei Historical Maps
play.google.com/store/apps/deta … oricalmaps

American GI took a trip through Taiwan before his tour in Vietnam.

These are very impressive.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssave/sets/72157629614223387/

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[quote=“ranlee”]American GI took a trip through Taiwan before his tour in Vietnam.

These are very impressive.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssave/sets/72157629614223387/[/quote]

flickr.com/photos/ssave/699 … 614223387/
that’s the original Grand Hotel, before they erase all of what’s left of the Japanese shrine.

flickr.com/photos/ssave/699 … 614223387/
that’s an absolutely hilarious slogan

So…most of it has been demolished? I feel like the current grand hotel is at a higher elevation than the one in the picture.

You can also see that MRT line was originally a railroad line too. Is there a thread here (or maybe a blog post somewhere) about how they converted the railroad to MRT? I’d be really interested to see how that was done.

[quote=“ranlee”][quote=“hansioux”]
flickr.com/photos/ssave/699 … 614223387/
that’s the original Grand Hotel, before they erase all of what’s left of the Japanese shrine.
[/quote]

So…most of it has been demolished? I feel like the current grand hotel is at a higher elevation than the one in the picture.

You can also see that MRT line was originally a railroad line too. Is there a thread here (or maybe a blog post somewhere) about how they converted the railroad to MRT? I’d be really interested to see how that was done.[/quote]

Aerial photo from WW2 US surveillance pics

There were 3 temples on that side of the river. Temple 1 is the current location of the Grand Hotel. It used to be Taiwan Jinja (台灣神社). In 1937, the prefecture decided to expand Taiwan Jinja, and started construction on Shin-keidaichi (新境內地), 2 on the map, which is now a private club of sorts next to the Grand Hotel. Shin-keidaichi was completed by 1942, and they upgraded the Jinja to Taiwan Jingū (台灣神宮) by 1944.

They were going to hold an opening ceremony for Taiwan Jingu on December 28, 1944. However, an aircraft planning to land at Matsuyama airport (Songshan airport today) crashed into Shin-keidaichi on Oct 25, which severely damaged the building and artefacts. Plus it was getting difficult to ignored the fact that Japan was losing the war. By early 1945 Taiwan was within range for US bombers, by May 31 1945, the US went ahead with the Raid of Taipei, the largest air strike on Taiwan during WW2. Shin-keidaichi was never rebuilt.

Temple 3 on the map is Gokoku Jinja (護國神社), present day Martyrs’ Shrine.

Same areal shot today.

As for the Tamsui line, I think they just ripped out the old rail and built the MRT.

At top-left in that photo you can see the original course of the Keelung River with the train line (and current MRT line) right on the riverbank.

I remember standing on the platform of Tamsui Railway Station at the end of 1989. The train service was suspended and the station was not yet demolished. Taking the bus between Taipei and Tamsui was a pain in the butt (literally; seats were uncomfortable) back then. Sometimes it took two hours or more. Traffic was crazy. Does anyone remember the ladies on long-distance buses in charge of checking the tickets?

It really amazes me on how much you guys know and have experienced.

I only remember as far back as when the Wenhu Line was the Muzha Line and when the Muzha Line was still being completed on Fuxing N. Rd in Taipei. Also, when the 101 was not even completed yet! However, I’ve never seen the daily or monthly progression since I was only here two months out of the year for summer vacation.

Really really amazing how the Dajia Park area was just…farmland and just west on the other side of the current Zhongshan N. Rd, that there’s homes there.

I like how at the end of the video, the passengers just walk over the railroad and then the video ends with the ah-bei walking straight at oncoming train tracks. The video really makes me feel like I’m living in the era when my parents were growing up in Taipei.

I’m probably going to use up my lunch time today watching those related videos on the side bar.

Thanks Hansioux

Lot of great images of the 60s in here:

https://vimeo.com/159039424

Love those old cars, polluting like there’s no tomorrow, but they had style. :slight_smile:

Temple festival back in the 1930s

Found this! A huuuuge archive of HD pics. Very well organized too.

http://taipics.com/

EDIT:

Knock yourself out @hansioux :wink:

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Look, my old school would have looked this cool if i’d been older…

now it looks like this…

That looks really cool! For Yilan there’s only Suao -_- any idea where I could find old photos of the rest of the region?

@hansioux could better answer this question

I saw the website being posted on another website, so I just thought I’d share here.

I’ve yet to go through all the Taipei categories, but hoping I can find some familiar shots.