Tie Non: Tamsui/淡水

In my last post, I started to talk about my trip to Taipei last weekend. I'm picking up today from where I left off.

First, we take the subway to the end of the red line.

先週の続きで、地下鉄の赤線に乗って終点まで行こう！

乗っている時はこんな感じだ。

着いた！スペイン人が作った砦に行ってみたいけど、ちょっと駅から遠いので、歩いて行って途中で他のところが見える。
The Tamsui station is kind of far from the location of the Spanish Fort, Fort Domingo, which is what I wanted to see most. The walk there is pleasant though.

Corgi!

The head in the middle of the park is MacKay's. He was a Canadian doctor and missionary who came to Taiwan. He taught and practiced medicine, and set up Oxford College. He lived in Taiwan for about 40 years until his death, married a Hoklo (the major Chinese language group in Taiwan) Taiwanese woman, and learned to speak Taiwanese. His writings about Taiwan contributed a lot to the western world's understanding of Taiwan.

公園の真ん中に有る頭像はマッケイと言うカナダ人だ。マッケイは医者と宣教師だった。淡水に来て、病院を作って、オクスフォード大学と言う学校も作った。亡く成るまで４０年位台湾に住んでいた。彼は台湾語（閩南語とも呼ばれている）を習って、台湾語のローマ字の書き方を考え出したなど、台湾の事を沢山書いたから、西洋世界にとっては、台湾を理解するに、とても大事な人物だった。

漢字で「マッケイ」と書いている。
This is a memorial to MacKay's hospital.

MacKay Street

Tamsui is at the mouth of a big river. The name "Tamsui" actually means "fresh water". It was historically an important port, and it's a stunningly gorgeous area. In this photo, we're looking south-west. If you head upriver (left) then you will reach central Taipei.
淡水は名前通り、淡水、つまり川、に面している。この川を遡れば（南方、写真の左）、台北に行く。昔は淡水が台湾の大きな港の一カ所だった。

ドミンゴ砦の玄関。
The entrance to Fort Domingo.

And here's the fort itself! Are you ready for a story?
The fort was originally built by the Spanish. They saw the potential in having a trading station on Formosa (Taiwan) due to its abundance of resources like deer skins, and its central location in East/South-East Asia. They originally built a wood fort, but eventually they replaced it with a stone one. The Dutch later attacked the Spanish, took over the area and rebuilt the fort. (This was a common tactic of the Dutch at the time. They made a lot of money by attacking and taking over Spanish and Portuguese trading stations.) The current building is the Dutch one, with later modifications.
Later, the Dutch were expelled from Formosa by Zheng Cheng Kung. Fast forward to when the Qing Dynasty controlled Taiwan. They were forced by the British to open up some of their ports to trade after the Opium Wars. One of those ports was Tamsui, and the fort was transferred to British control, where it was used as a consulate. It stayed under British control until the UK cut official diplomatic ties with the Republic of China. The fort is now a museum, a free one too!

これはドミンゴ砦だ。（別名：赤毛城）元々スペイン人はここに木材の砦を作って、後で石材に代えた。スペイン人は台湾が東アジアの中心地と分かったから、貿易する為に商館を置いた。でも同じ台湾に居たオランダ人はこれを気に入らず、砦を攻撃してスペイン人を追い出した。オランダ人は同じところに新しい砦を作った。それが現在の建物だ。その後、中華人／日本人ハーフの鄭成功はオランダ人を追い出した。
清時代にイギリスと清朝は戦争して、清朝が負けたためイギリスと不平等条約を結ばざるをえなかった。イギリスの貿易に開かされた港の中に淡水も有った。それ以後、この砦はイギリスの領事館として役を果たした。
イギリスは中華民国との外交関係を切断した時、建物が一時的にアメリカの手に渡されたけど、その後アメリカも外交を切断したから、現在は無料の歴史博物館に成っている。

この低い建物に台所と牢屋が有った。不平等条約の時に、イギリス人は清朝の法律に従わなかったので、イギリス人を逮捕したのは、清朝の警察じゃなくて、イギリスの領事館だった。幕末／明治初期の日本にも同じ状況が有った。
The bottom floor of this fort, including the little building pictured here, had jail cells in it dating back to the time as a consulate building. Why jail cells in an consulate? Remember, back in the late 19th century, the British consulate in the Qing Empire was not just a consulate. Because the British had forced an unequal treaty on the Qing, British citizens were not subject to Qing courts, and had to be arrested and tried by the British government. There were similar "agreements" in other countries the British felt they could bully around. Japan had similar treaties with the British, and other european countries, until they modernized and had a strong enough military that they could hold their own against western powers.

砦の向こうにイギリス領事館の時代に作られた建物がもう一軒有る。
There's another building across the way from the fort. It was built as a consular residence during the period when the grounds were being used by the British as a consulate.