Southern Taiwan - Taiwan - page 461

28 Gandan Café C2
29 Lily Fruit Shop B3
30 TCRC Bar B1
Shopping
Tainan Kuang Tsai Embroidery Shop (see 26)
Information
National Museum of Taiwanese Literature (see 10)
31 Visitor Information Centre D1
Transport
32 City Bus North Station D1
33 City Bus South Station D1
34 Ho-Hsin Bus Company D1
35 Hsingnan Bus Company D1
36 Scooter Rentals D1
History
Fujianese first settled in the Tainan area in the late 1600s, but it was the Dutch East India
Company (VOC) that encouraged immigration. After being booted off Penghu by the
Qing dynasty, the Dutch established Tainan as an operational base for their trade with
Japan and China. However, unable to persuade Taiwanese aborigines to grow rice and
sugar for export, and unable to persuade Dutch rulers to allow immigration, the VOC
looked to China for cheap labour.
When the Ming loyalist Koxinga defeated the Dutch, he established a central govern-
ment in Tainan and started building up the city (a project later continued by his sons).
Koxinga's son constructed Taiwan's first Confucian temple, helping to establish Tainan
as a cultural and educational centre.
In 1683, when the Qing dynasty gained control of Taiwan, Tainan was chosen as the
capital. The city remained the political, cultural and economic centre under the Qing, but
lost this status in 1919 when the Japanese moved their colonial capital to Taipei. To the
discerning eye, Tainan's pedigree is apparent from the stately quality of the city's
temples and historic sites.