The university compound is an inferno, which covers an area of.. a huge area. Block by block of buildings which includes a high end restaurant and other facilities all belong to the national university. The inhabitants: 18,000.
We were in time for a meeting, which was held in the university architectural department. However, frankly i didn't really understand the contents of it, being one which had just finished year two. Barely. Anyway, from what we could catch about the meeting, it was about Japan's colonization of neighbouring settlements, reaching out its sovereign on namely Joseon, taiwan and some northeastern state. These events led to modernization of these colonies thru western influence Japan sought to learn and absorb from, in an attempt to counter Western's own expansionism.
Now, to anping. Anping is a port, once a Dutch settlement. It is one of, if not the oldest town in Taiwan. The United Provinces of the Netherlands developed An ping into a major port and incorporated fortresses like the Zeelandia and Provintia.
We stopped at the tree house and had a look at the tree overgrowth on some old masonry structures. Beside the houses was a wax museum, which mainly explains the arrival of foreigners to Taiwan.
Next was Fort Zeelandia. An impressive fort, developed, renovated and upgraded by the dutch, the qing dynasty, the japanese and the taiwanese govt. much of the main structures had already crumbled, leaving visible footprints and excavation sites. The remnants are now well preserved and serve as a footnote for tourists and researchers alike. We could also notice several gun platforms facing a land area which was once sea.
We then explored the innards of anping. The urban fabric was like no other: houses were built before laying infrastructures. Therefore the roads were formed from the gaps of houses. We then visited a society clubhouse landmark. Or something like that. One point on fengshui. Wooden panels which weapon features on it are situated right in front of the main entrance is to prevent 杀气 or death energy from entering a house interior.
Then we headed to an NGO office, which gave us a short lecture on their activities. This group of people are actually volunteers to provide the public an awareness about the importance and the need for preservation of heritage sites; buildings. They focus on adaptive reuse and the restoration of historical structures. From their works i could make out that they even sought to invest on green technology ie. skylights built on an old masonry shophouse, etc. Other features include using 2nd hand furniture on the interior, saving on costs. One of the interesting features of one of their study was about a structure which kept its rebars for adaptive reuse, now a decoration.
webby: www.fhccr.org.tw
after that we had a short trip to another temple which has Guang Gong as its main deity (I think) and many sub compartments serving different purposes. We also came across the fortress Provintia and had a wintermelon drink.
Dinner was on the staff of NCKU ! Fantastic food.
Back to CYCU tmr.
Pictures will be uploaded when i have 1) an adapter 2)another adapter 3)time. lol
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