Lukang, Changhua

Lukang (Chinese鹿港 镇, Pinyin Lùgǎng Zhen, W.-G. Lu -kang Chen, deer port ') is a town (镇, zhen ) with about 85,000 inhabitants in Changhua County in western Taiwan. She was from the 17th to the 19th century one of the most important ports in the island. Today Lukang is mainly known for its historic old town with many temples.

Location

Lukang is in the northwest of the county Changhua good 10 km west of the county town of Changhua at the Formosastraße. Around the city, the Changhua plain stretches.

History

In the 17th century used the Dutch, who had occupied the southwestern Taiwan, Lukang as a major export port. The name Lukang ( "Deer Harbor " ) is because there were shipped from deerskins especially to Japan. Under the Qing Dynasty was the port of Lukang, one of the best natural harbors in Taiwan at the Formosastraße, from 1784 to the main port for maritime traffic between Taiwan and the opposite on the mainland province of Fujian. Many immigrants from the mainland entered in Lukang Taiwan for the first time the ground.

From the heyday of Lukang in 1800 comes the saying一 府,二 鹿,三 艋舺( firstly Fǔ, secondly Lù, thirdly Mengjia ), where Fǔ ( "capital", " headquarters " ) for the former island capital of Tainan, Lù for Lukang and Mengjia for the nucleus of the island's capital Taipei is. With about 200,000 inhabitants, Lukang was to Tainan is the second largest city in Taiwan.

Towards the end of the 19th century Lukang lost its importance as the port began to silt up. The built at the beginning of Japanese rule over Taiwan in 1900 railway through western Taiwan was further inland, as the city Lukang opposed the construction of a railroad in their field. Was also influenced by the major highways passing Lukang, so that soon the city was overshadowed by growing cities like Taizhong or Changhua.