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The Condition of the Harbor
The business functions of Lukang resulted in the prosperity of ' No sky'
street area; the successes of the business functions of Lukang and ' No
sky' street area were closely related. The primary reason why Lukang
became the major business port to the mainland in central Taiwan was
that Lukang was one of the places in central Taiwan that were
closest to
Chuan Chou
(one of the former major business ports in the mainland). Lukang was a natural good harbor until the early years of the Ching
Dynasty. Lukang was good for transportation. However, there is a
shortcoming for this port—since the rivers in Taiwan are short and the
currents are swift, the downstream sedimentation at the mouth of the
rivers is unavoidable. As time goes by, the coastline is gradually
pushed outwards.
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A look of Lukang from the
sky |
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Geographical Factors
The rivers in Lukang run westwards owing to the terrain of
Taiwan. There are two major rivers: the Lukang River and the
Yang-Tzu-Tso River, both of which have serious sedimentation
problems and originate from the foot of Bagua Mountain. As a
result, both rivers are short and the currents are swift,
which keeps pushing the coastline of Lukang outwards. The
Lukang River used to be the main route for river
transportation until the reign of Tao Kuang, when the soil
brought by the two floodings in the nearby Choshui River
clogged the Lukang River. In other words, during the golden
age of ' No sky' street area, Lukang/the deer harbor was
most of the time out of order. Lukang and ' No sky' street
area maintained their successful business operations thanks
to the external port and river transportation. The following
is the development of the ports for " No sky" street
area (in the topical order): |
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The
Initial Stage
According to the reliable sources, the Chronicle of Zhu Luo County (now
Chiayi County), the first sedimentation problem occurred during the
later years of the reign of
Emperor Kangsi. However, the situations of Lukang
were not always so terrible—the port could be a good harbor for a while
and then got tied down by the sedimentation problem, going back and
forth. That is because of the variation of the sands brought by the sea
and the large amount of sediments brought by the two above-mentioned
rivers. The need for cargo transportation had to be addressed by the
feeder service occasionally. Yet since Lukang was not the business port
for the mainland in central Taiwan, the demand of cargo transportation
was quite low at that time. Later on, during the reign of Yung Ching,
the Lukang people still made efforts to solve the sedimentation problem.
Only those who knew the port very well were courageous enough to use it.
Lukang became more important during the reign of Chien Lung for two
reasons. First, the port itself was widened. Second, its opponents, the
Hai-feng Port and the San-lin Port were both clogged. Consequently, in
Chien Lung 49, the main port of Lukang opened up, which contributed to
the golden age of ' No sky' street area.
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The
Golden Age
Even after the main port was opened up and dominated the cargo
transportation in central Taiwan, the sediment accumulation continued
and the threat of total abandon remained. During the reign of Chia Ching,
the port of Lukang was abandoned again due to the sediment accumulation.
The merchants had to look for other good harbors to run their
businesses. Eventually, they settled with the Wang-kung Port (now
Wang-kung Village of Fangyuan Township ) and transport the cargo via
river transportation. Meanwhile, the Ching Government intended to
replace Lukang with the Wu-Tiao Port (the Hai-feng Port). At this time,
the functions of the port of Lukang was totally lost; it was not
accessible to the ships. With the gradual loss of its competitive edge,
the port enter the so-called Stagnation Period.
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The
Stagnation Period
Starting from the reign of
Dao Kuang, the external port of
Lukang, the Wang-kung Port, was clogged as well. The
merchants of Lukang could not help but looking for other
harbors. Eventually, they settled with Fan-Tsai-Wa (now
Fangyuan Village of Fangyuan Township and a number of other
places) and had to transport the cargo to Lukang via the
Wang-kung Port. The Choshui River
flooded
again in 1851 A.D.
and its branches heavily damaged and disabled the port of Lukang. As a result, a new port, the Chung-his Port, was
built in the west of today’s Lukang. During the reign of
Tung Chih, Fan-Tsai-Wa also experienced the sedimentation
problem. What’s worse was that the Chung-his Port was too
dangerous for business activities due to sediment
accumulation. These problems were not solved even during the
reign of Kuang Hsu. In the Japanese Colonial Period, the
Japanese built a new port, the Fu-lung Port, for the
Yang-Tzu-Tso River. The port was operational as the tides
rose, and then the cargo was transported by bamboo rafts to
' No sky' street area. |
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Decadence
During the Japanese
Colonial Period, the trading volumes
shrank rapidly because, on the one hand, the sedimentation
problem was not solved, and on the other hand, the Japanese
intended to separate Taiwan from the mainland (see the part
of “Winter”). In addition, Lukang was no longer the first
choice in the development of railroads and navigation, which
in turn put an end to ' No sky' street area’s reliance on
the port for its business activities and its prosperity.
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Map of Lukang around the
golden age |
Map around the decadance |
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There are many books that relate the decadence of ' No sky'
street area directly to that of the port of Lukang. Those
authors believe that the malfunctioning port was the very
cause of the fall of ' No sky' street area. Yet we found out
in many other books that although the port did greatly
influence the success of ' No sky' street area, it was not
the decisive factor. The evidence of our finding comes from
the fact that the merchants of Lukang continuously shifted
the external ports in order to continue the prosperity of '
No sky' street area. Their wisdom was observable and was
translated into the century-old prosperity of ' No sky'
street area. |
《Next
Development…》 |
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