Early Development

        The year of the “no sky” street area's emergence is still uncertain but most books are very certain about the range of the “no sky” street area. The “no sky” street area emerged as the development of streets and the outbreak of drastic population growth. To react to the population growth and the need of land, the streets started to stretch from the earliest Yaolin Street, Putou Street, and Beitou area to the port along the river between Sinan Temple and Tienhou Temple. These streets built in early times are all called old street, including Putou, Dayou, and Yaulin (near the Lukang post office) Streets, associated with Mishih Street, Singankou, extended to Shihsia, Bandian Street and the Jiewei area, forming zonal streets.

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        With the development of Lukang's commerce, the old street was not enough because after the boost of commerce, bigger land is required for commerce so the old street wasn't good enough. Therefore, Lukang businessmen discussed about solving the lack of land problem. It is considered that during Cianlong toJiacing period, after the residents' discussion, it was decided that all of the residents would build the Wufu Street, i.e. the main street later, together to make it the major trading place. The main street was 7 km in length and 7 meters in width. The trading place was more human and ideal than that in the old street. Thus the main street replaced the old street and became the new trading place.

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Wu-Fu Street

        Although the so called Wufu Street had only one street name, it included five main streets in reality. The five streets were Shunsing Street, Fusing Street, Hesing Street, Taising Street, and Changsing Street. Plus the Bandian Street near the end of the street would complete the “no sky” street area in which pavilions were meant to block the strong wind and big sun. The streets of the “no sky” street area were very long and pavilions were built in front of each store, so this should have been decided by all of the stores. It could never be an independent decision of a single or part of the stores. Judging from this, the development of the “no sky” street area should be based on the collective spirit of local stores. It is obvious that the merchants in the “no sky” street area were powerful at that time and even exceeded the government.

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Reconstruction of the Street

        The prosperity of the Wufu Street had lasted until late Cing dynasty (during the Guang-Shi period), and it was inferred that after the Japanese occupation, due to the silt of harbor and the influence of other competitive harbors, it was no longer as prosperous as before. After the Cing government officially ceded Taiwan to Japan, large amount of businessmen returned to mainland China and led to the drastic decline of the “no sky” street area. During the Showa (Japaneses Emperor of the time) period, in order to break the typical cohesion of society, Japanese started to modify the downtown area in 1934 and officially ended the history of the “no sky” street area.

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         In the eyes of Japanese, commercial organizations with strong cohesion such as the merchants in the “no sky” street area impeded the Japanese colonial policies. Meanwhile, to solve sanitary problems and construct a road network in case of war, it was necessary to modify the downtown area. Lukang started to modify its downtown area but excluded “no sky” street area. The environment of the “no sky” street area, however, was dark and humid and violated the sanitary regulations, so in 1934, the first part of the houses beside the street was deconstructed. Until then, the once prosperous “no sky” street area lasted from Cianlong to Jiacing period to 1934 and finally became history and became memories in people's mind.

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