Today it is time to leave Tainan and head to the mountains. But first we have one more area in the city to explore, Anping that couldn’t be visited by foot the previous day. So we check out and pick our car and then drive to Anping about half hour from downtown but still in the Tainan suburbs now. We are earlier here than usual and even find place in the parking lot closest to the fort. This is unusual as we notice when we return later, the parking lot is choke full at that point.
While the parking lot is close it is not right at the doorstep of the fort. We have to first pass by the Impressive Kaitai Tianhou Temple, we weren’t even aware such an impressive temple is located here.
As many other temples in Taiwan it is dedicated to Mazu, the sea goddess, which makes a lot of sense given that Taiwan is an island and the sea is always on everyone’s mind, either in a good or bad way.
From the temple it is a short walk through an alley that is supposed to be full of shops, but this early most of them are closed. At least the fort is open and after taking in the beautiful architecture it is time to enter to explore the fort.
After we enter the first stop is the Zeelandia City Museum. This is a former customs house now housing a small exhibit about the history of Tainan and Dutch presence in the area.
There is a short video showing the outline of the history of the area from the first people arriving on the island up to about 19th century that we watch as we explore the museum.
There are also some objects excavated here and some that are highlighting the trade goods that were exchanged here. Overall we liked the small museum and especially enjoyed the AC inside.
But still we are a bit hot so we decide to buy some ice cream from the shop outside and eat it while enjoying the views of the walls and Anping Fort. We are not sure how much it is renovated but the walls are in surprisingly good shape for a 17th century fort. That is when Fort Zeelandia was built by the Dutch to protect their trade interests and did that for 30 years before being conquered by the Chinese after a nine month siege.
This is one of the most touristical sights we have seen in Taiwan with multiple school tours and groups and foreigners visiting the site. Surprisingly only few are looking at the most famous spot that we are aware about, a scenic door in the middle of a ruined wall that is featured in many photos of the site.
We continue exploring around the wall following the map and finding a few interesting birds including some recently introduced to the island.
Here in the gardens are a few areas where archaeological excavations have taken place to discover the extent of the Dutch fortifications. Most of the finds are now stabilized with only the foundations being visible.
As we make our way around the fort we find a spot that just seems ideal to try a 3D photo of this historically important location, there are no tourists and no guards and the view is quite nice.
And then it is time to explore the top of the hill with the tower that is looming above it all. For that we need to find the stairs and we walk all around the hill trying to find them. We know one set that is up front but we bet there has to be a second one in the back, who knows?
And we find them right on the opposite side of the hill right next to a cache that we find before starting on the climb up towards the tower.
On the intermediate terrace is a collection of cannons watching over the surrounding area and protecting the fort. We enjoy the views and then climb to the tower which is so full of tourists that we decide to skip climbing it. Instead we descend and exit via a different exit towards our next goal and last stop in Tainan the Anping Tree House.
