History of Dexing Coal Mine

Close to the beginning of the Tiaomi Trail, at No.111, lane 100, Alley 600, Wuxing Street, is the place where the Dexing coal mine's pithead is located. During Japanese colonial rule, there were a quite a few mines in the vicinity, of which Dexing was one of the better-known. Initially, the mining company used workers to carry the coal to the docks, but each worker was able to carry only four loads. Later, pushcar lines were built to transport coal, with one line linking Wuxing Street to the present-day location of Xinyi district's local government offices, and another line linking Wuxing Street with Songshan Station, via Keelung Road and Section Four of Bade Road. From there, coal was then transported by rail to various locations. The mysterious rail line running through the Sun Yat-sen Memorial grounds, which the school's Computer Studies teacher noticed as a child (in the 1970s), was this coal transportation line.

 

Songshan Coal Legend::

There was once a young man surnamed Xu, who passed his time in idleness and gambling, wasting the family finances, and thus the family rice basket was often empty. One New Year's Eve, Xu made his wife buy some pork from the butcher's stall, on credit, in preparation for the New Year. But that night, the creditor came round to collect debts, and failing to receive his money, took the one thing the Xu family had to pass New Year -- the piece of pork -- as surety. This reduced the couple to tears, but finally awakened the husband to his own confused past. He vowed there and then to make a furious effort, and resolved to work as hard as he could at the mine...and eventually, he became rich.