Landscape
Three tribes of Taiwanese Plains Aborigines: Beitou, Xialaobie and Chilian were living around mountains in Guandu. After Han People entered, however, they gained land. Original Taiwanese Plains tribes turned into Han tribes. Nevertheless, the first Mazu Temple was established in Guandu outfall, instead of Han villages like Bali and Tamsui or Taiwanese Plains tribes. The reason might be that the position was exactly between where Han People and Taiwanese Plains tribes lived, negotiated, communicated and traded. The dragon pillars in Guandu Temple that engraved with the characters ‘donated by Pan Yuan-Kun, Liu Shi-Sun, and Jin Jia-Yu, residents of Beitou’ was the best evidence that Taiwanese Plains Aborigines and Han People socialized a lot and Taiwanese Plains tribes and Han tribes linked together.
Along Tamsui River, when you looked at Taipei Basin, you would see Guandu ‘with a lion and an elephant guarding the door’. Behind Guandu Pass, there were miles and miles of fertile fields and tribes along mountains. With guarding mountains surrounding and passenger vessels passing, the streets and markets next to the river bank were prosperous, full of businessmen and travelers. When Han People started to move to Guandu to farm, traffic on water was their main choices. Considering safety and trading, they tried their best to avoid traffic on land to skip threats from Taiwanese Plains tribes. It was written how waterways and ports along the upstream of Guandu outfall influenced Taiwanese Plains tribes. When you walked along the river, it divided into ‘south port route’ and ‘north port route’: the southwest ‘south port waterway (Dahan Stream)’ connected to Shezhi (Banqiao); the northeast ‘north port waterway (Keelung River)’ connected to Fengziyu (Xizhi). On the waterway, you could park the boat when arrived Wulauwan and Dalangbang.
It was unknown when Guandu trail was expanded. According to early records, when Guandu was still the partition of Taiwanese Plains tribes and Han tribes, trails in mountains might be the approach between Tamsui and Beitou. Especially after Han villages in Guandu developed, mountain trails between villages started to expand. Afterwards, trails along mountains and rivers became suitable wide roads while more and more people needed traffic on land. From that on, trails became roads, or even highways—the era of roads and cars began.
When Taiwan was in Japanese rule, Tamsui railways and Guandu train station started to be established. With supports from directors of Guandu and Tamsui and the mayor of Shilin, Taipei City government accepted the idea of reconstructing original roads as needed, which residents concerned participated in. The reconstruction and the construction of Jiantou Park were finished in Dec., 1902. After the retrocession of Taiwan, the south side of the road became a part of industrial district. Modern factories got more and more along Guandu railways.
Tamsui railways ended the era of Guandu waterways. With the sediment of Tamsui River, the last train drove into the train station in 1988 and was replaced by Taipei Metro Tamsui Line in 1997. New Guandu metro station moved to northeast—where it is nowadays.
