Brief Introduction to Lukang

     Lukang is located at the midpoint of the west coast of Taiwan and is the closest city to Mainland China from Taiwan, so it was naturally developed to a prosperous city of commercial port. Between 1785 and 1845, Lukang was in its heyday. Later, it quickly declined due to the sediments in the port. Therefore, many old architectures and valuable cultural and artistic assets were kept. It became a famous cultural and tourist city for its unique and fascination in historical sites, temples, crafts, foods, and literature art.

     Lukang was known as a place where people cannot see:

1. Sky (Roofed Street): for the booming business of the shops, to provide a year-round shelter, shops at both sides of the street put up sheds to form the street where people cannot see the sky, that is, Zhongshan Street at present.

2. Ground: the lanes and streets of Lukang are paved with red tile or Tangshan rock, and thus people cannot see the ground.

3. Woman: in early days, due to conservative lifestyle of people in Lukang, women were not allowed to walk around. Therefore, women were hard to be seen on the street. Instead, they kept to home or make friends on rooftops.  

     In present Lukang, there are many of the following:

1. Historical sites: many historical sites such as temples, architectures and old streets of the Qing Dynasty and the Japanese colonial rule period.

2. Snacks: many traditional snacks flourish again due to increasingly more tourists.

3. Humanities craftsmen: masterful craft artisans of a variety of traditional crafts such as: wood carving, tin art, light art, gold engraving, pottery, dough figurine etc. can be found in Lukang.

( Pictures are made by the team members. )