Taiwan travels: echoes of the past in Lukang

It is difficult to imagine when you visit Lukang today that it was once one three largest and most prosperous ports in Taiwan along with Tainan, the former capital, and Mengjia, which is now part of Taipei.

But you can still see signs of the town’s former glories in the magnificent Longshan Temple dedicated to Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, and the Tianhou Temple dedicated to Mazu, the goddess of the sea, who is revered for protecting fishermen and sailors.

The Tianhou Temple is by far the most popular and liveliest of the two and was packed with worshippers celebrating the first day of Spring in the lunar calendar when I visited it earlier today. The Longshan Temple, in contrast, has a timeless beauty and grace that is difficult to match.

The narrow winding alleys of Lukang such as Nine Turns Lane also provide a tantalising glimpse of Lukang during its nineteenth-century heyday. Unfortunately, many of the old buildings are in a state of disrepair, including an elevated corridor called the Shi Yi Hall which, according to a nearby sign, was “the hangout of Lukang’s literati, who would gather there to recite poetry and partake in alcoholic revelry.”

Lukang’s importance as a port began to wane in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, due to the silting of its harbor and the shift of major trade activities to other ports like Keelung and Kaohsiung. If you have any interest at all in the history of Taiwan, it is definitely worth a visit.

By road, it takes about two and a half hours to get from Taipei to Lukang. The town is also about forty-five minutes from the Changhua high speed rail station.