Tainan Wu Garden
Encyclopedia
Tainan
Tainan City is a city in southern Taiwan. It is the fifth largest after New Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. It was formerly a provincial city, and in 2010, the provincial city merged with the adjacent Tainan County to form a single special municipality. Tainan faces the Taiwan Strait in...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(once part of Tainan
Fucheng
Fucheng may refer to the following settlements in the People's Republic of China:*Fucheng County , of Hengshui, Hebei*Fucheng District , Mianyang, SichuanTowns*Fucheng, Beihai , in Yinhai District, Beihai, Guangxi...
(府城)'s Pang-kiô-thâu (枋橋頭) area). Built during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor
Daoguang Emperor
The Daoguang Emperor was the eighth emperor of the Manchurian Qing dynasty and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1820 to 1850.-Early years:...
, by local gentleman Wu Shangxin (吳尚新), it is included among Wufeng Lin Family Mansion and Garden
Wufeng Lin Family Mansion and Garden
Wufeng Lin Family Mansion and Garden is the general name for the former residence and grounds of the Wufeng Lin family at its Wufeng District, Taichung ancestral home. Owing to the great size of the Lin family clan, the site can be divided into two branches, the Upper and Lower Houses. Because...
(霧峰萊園), Hsinchu Beiguo Garden (新竹北郭園), and Banqiao Lin Family Mansion and Garden
Lin Family Mansion and Garden
The Lin Ben Yuan Family Mansion and Garden is located in Banqiao District, New Taipei City, was a residence built by the Lin Ben Yuan Family, of Banqiao, Taiwan, and is currently Taiwan's most-complete surviving example of traditional Chinese garden architecture. Also known as the Lin Family Gardens...
(板橋林本源園邸) as the Four Great Gardens of Taiwan (台灣四大名園).
History
Wu Garden was built in the eighth or ninth year of the Daoguang Emperor (1828 or 1829), salt magnate Wu Shangxin bought and built his estate to the north of the garden of He Bin (何斌), an interpreter during the era of Dutch rule, at the time also called "lâu-á lāi (樓仔內)". Because at that time, the wealth of the Wu family was considered the greatest in Fucheng, so there was a local saying "If you have the wealth of lâu-á lāi, then you don't have the lâu-á lāi estate; If you have the lâu-á lāi estate, then you don't have the wealth of lâu-á lāi 「有樓仔內的富，也無樓仔內的厝；有樓仔內的厝，也無樓仔內的富」".It remained this way until the era of Japanese occupation
Taiwan under Japanese rule
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century....
, when the fortunes of the Wu family began to decline, and its property rights was confiscated by the Tainan Office (臺南廳). In Meiji 44 (1911), it constructed Former Tainan Meeting Hall along the Garden's southern edge, as well as the then-famous Four Seasons Inn (四春園旅館) on its southeastern side, the Tainan Library (臺南圖書館) in Taishō
Taisho
Taisho may refer to:* Taishō period , a period in the history of Japan* Emperor Taishō of Japan , reigned 1912–1926. His given name was Yoshihito.* Taishō-ku, Osaka, a ward in the city of Osaka, Japan...
9 (1920) on its northwestern corner , and Tainan Municipal Swimming Pool (臺南市水浴場) in Taishō
Taisho
Taisho may refer to:* Taishō period , a period in the history of Japan* Emperor Taishō of Japan , reigned 1912–1926. His given name was Yoshihito.* Taishō-ku, Osaka, a ward in the city of Osaka, Japan...
11 (1922) on its northern edge. In 1974, Four Seasons Inn, Tainan Library, and Tainan Municipal Bathhouse were sold to Far East Department Store, and is now the home of their Park Branch store.
In 1994, after the Social Education Building was moved out from the Former Tainan Meeting Hall, there was a proposal to build a commercial building on this area, but afterward the plans were scrapped and the Garden has been preserved to this day.