And then we were in Kaohsiung City!
I really enjoyed watching these men fishing!
"In 1858, China was defeated by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in the Second Opium War and compelled to sign the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1861, Robert Swinhoe, the first British Vice Consul to Taiwan, arrived at Takao from Amoy by gunboat. (In 1866), the official British Consulate was built."
"In 1979, the Ministry of the Interior ... concluded that the Consulate building possessed an unusual value in the modern history of China as a concrete record and testimony of the presence of Western Powers in China. (The renovation) was completed in October 1986 (and) the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Kaohsiung City Government assigned a new role to the Consulate building by making it a museum of history and culture."
In front of the old British Consulate on the hill above Hsi-tzu-wan (西子灣) at ShaoChuanTou(哨船頭) in Kaohsiung stands a stone slab inscribed with graceful Chinese characters. This classical stone stele expresses the Chinese feeling of shame over the Opium Wars and subsequent foreign encroachments on Chinese soil and expounds on how Kaohsiung's previous mayor, Wang Yu-yun, had proposed that the then-ruined building be restored as a monument to Chiang Kai-shek's fight against foreign invaders and unequal treaties.
Inside the building is an interesting if eclectic collection of photographs, models and charts dating back to the 1842 Opium War and reaching up to the Sino-Japanese War of 1895.
Amongst these materials there are two interesting British documents, which are displayed together on the wall of what was once the British consul's bedroom. These are shown on the right in a picture taken in 2004.
The upper document, which is a British Admiralty chart apparently dated 1865, shows the Consulate to be at its present position on the hill above ShaoChuanTou.
The lower document shows an 1877 plan of the consular site with clearly visible handwriting to say that it was purchased on 22 January 1877 from one Lu Ta-tu.
Historical place with scenic views!
