Tamsui River was silted up and became shallow, ships were transformed to sampan in order to deliver goods or catch fishes.  However, as the trading function of Tamsui port degraded, sampans are just being used as fishing boats by fishermen today. The eyes of sampans look downwards so that they can see the fishes well and catch fishes easily.  Sampan is originally made of solid cypress wood.  But now, considering the solidity and price, glass fiber material is used.  

When there was neither wind nor motors, "oars" supplied the power for sampan.  Fishermen in early days had to paddle the oars so that the sampan was able to flow on the water.  Later on, the fishermen used wind power to make sampan move faster.  However, nowadays, we can not see wind-powered sampans any more.  Fishermen use motor as the source of power.  Once there is enough fuel, when the fisherman presses the button, sampan moves.  Motors save the fishermen a lot of efforts.

　　During the process of the interviews, we found that there are different versions of the meanings of the embroidered top.  Some fishermen told us the embroidered top is the mould of a crown, some said it's like an anchor.  Also some fishermen mentioned that the white circle in the central part of the top represents the sun, the white curvy lines represent the waves, and the green beneath the top represents the color of the deeper sea. It's

quite interesting.  We can see the beautiful colors not only on the embroidered top, but also on the sharp stern of the hull.  The reason why the both sides of the stern are sharp is that it's easier to carry it ashore, like carrying the sedan chair in the ancient time, when the sampan gets stranded at falling tide.