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.

  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.

 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.

        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.

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