Anping Dist.

An Isolated and Serene Crescent Bay

The “DDG-925 TeYang” museum ship is the most popular attraction in Anping Harbor and the only warship museum in Taiwan. DDG-925 was decommissioned in 2009 after nearly 30 years of service and docked at Anping Harbor for conversion into a warship museum for educational use. DDG-925 is now not only popular with military tourists. Photographers are also drawn to its formidable lines. 

Anping Guanyin Temple(安平觀音亭)was built in 1590 and enshrines Guanyin Bodhisattva. The god statue in the main hall is over 400 years old. The temple’s glittering golden exterior is very striking; it is as if tourists are illuminated by Buddha’s grace and are protected. As the Guanyin Temple is near Anping Old Street, Anping Fort and other attractions, numerous famous products and snacks can be bought nearby. After a sincere visit, visitors can enjoy some of the various tasty local old-time delicacies at their leisure.

Wong Ji Shi Mansion(王雞屎洋樓) is a beautiful old house, and when it was built in 1937 it was Anping's most luxurious mansion. The house was named after its owner, Mr. Wong Ji Shi, who became rich from contracting the haulage for the Japanese Salt Co. during the Japanese Colonial Time, and had this house made, the tallest in Anping at the time. Beside the mansion there are some unique stone chairs, which were originally ballasts used by boats traveling across the Taiwan Strait.

Xishe Xilong Temple (西社西㡣殿) mainly enshrines Chi Fu Qian Sui (池府千歲) who protects the people of Xishe. The temple is where believers come to pray for safety at sea and to handle various other religious matters. It also enshrines a large number of other gods, the most obvious of which are Hsieh Fu and Huang Fu Yuan Shuai(謝府及黃府元帥), large statues of which can be seen on the left and right side of the main hall, respectively.

Go around Anping Fort and Anping Tianhou Temple and, furthest to the west, Saint Lawrence Catholic Church(聖樂倫天主堂) in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tainan can be found. The museum is on the church’s 1st floor. Nearly 1,000 religious relics are exhibited periodically.

Eternal Golden Fort (億載金城), is also known as Erkunshen Fortress (二鯤鯓砲台), and is a red four-walled castle surrounded by bastions and moat on all four sides. In ancient times, the strip of turf in the center would have been used for military drills by soldiers, and when looking at the site on the map it becomes clear that it is of a particularly evenly proportioned rhombus design. Through the vicissitudes of history, the Eternal Golden Fort lost its relevance as a military stronghold, and has now become a popular tourist destination.

A combined Dutch military and commercial force captured modern day Anping in 1624, and built Fort Zeelandia(熱蘭遮城) as its defensive stronghold, which was completed in 1634. In 1662, Koxinga successfully took the Dutch fort back, and changed the name to Anping. The inner fort became the seat of government for Taiwan, and so it was known by Taiwanese as King's Fort.

Located next to Fort Zeelandia, Anping Kaitai Matsu Temple(安平天后宮(開台天后宮) is Anping District’s largest temple and has a spacious temple square. Its statue of Matsu is a rare soft-bodied statue that, it is said, was brought with Koxinga’s fleet from Meizhou in Fujian in 1668. A temple was built, and the statue was enshrined, which is why the temple name has “kaitai” (“founding”) in it. The temple is one of the main centers for Matsu belief in Taiwan. The temple’s grandest event is the Matsu Festival held every four years.

The most eye catching feature of Anping Fishing Harbor (安平漁港) is the impressively tall Lin Mo Niang statue (林默娘雕像) next to the harbor, watching over the ships passing every day like the Statue of Liberty of Tainan. The large area is perfect for taking the kids for a walk, happily following the performers on Paopao street or flying kites on the grass around the edge, and lots of people bring their kids and let them run free on the grass.