Taiwans ancient castle: A fortress with red hair

Those who have read my travel reports from Taiwan should have noticed that the inhabitants of the island, formerly called Formosa, always pose a little riddle with the names of their towns and places. Today, for example, we are in Tamsui, also spelled Tanshui or Tamshui, a district of the city of New Taipei with a good 140,000 inhabitants, so called because it lies on the river of the same name, Tamsui. However, the place used to be called Hùweǐ or Hobe, which is why Fort Santo Domingo, which is located here, is officially called Fort Hobe. Confusing? Definitely!

But also a point of attraction for Taiwanese and tourists. The town northwest of Taipei, located at the mouth of the Tamsui River on the Formosa Strait, is something like an elongated circus without a tent. Along the waterfront, life rages: There are magicians and human statues, ice cream stands, restaurants, lots of quirky musicians and outdoor painters who don't just paint, but show some kind of performance art. The first person to guess which person from the audience the artist is painting wins a prize.

But the real attraction here, besides the river of course, which flows wide and quite dirty, is the old fort, built by the Spanish around 1629. It was expanded during the reign of Guang-Syu in 1886 because Ming-Chuan Liu, the governor of the island at that time, found the coastal defenses too weak. German Lieutenant Max E. Hecht, an engineer by profession, was hired to build a fortress to protect the main entrance road into the city.

Hecht offered everything that the technology of the time had to offer: he built command posts and bunkers, camouflaged the high ramparts with sown grass and created deep cellars for the ammunition supplies.

On top of the walls were 12- and 10-pounder guns from Armstrong and Krupp, some of which can still be seen today - shortly after the Sino-French War, the best was just good enough, even if it had to be shipped in from the other side of the world.Hecht died a short time later here in Taiwan, at the age of only 39 and after receiving the Great Order of the Dragon from the Chinese Emperor.

There is not too much to see in the square fortress. An old masonry, well maintained by the Taiwanese government with a lot of money, mostly Chinese tourists walk through the dark corridors and over the lush lawns. All the hedges are nicely trimmed and all the information boards are up to date.

On the former Fort Antonio - as the Dutch called it - a red-brick house that looks much nicer than the new buildings nearby, which resemble Lego bricks, hang today all the flags of the states that ever laid claim to rule here. Chinese people - you you their tick with names - called is "Red Hair Fort" because they were convinced the Dutch all have red hair.

But these times are gone. All that remains of most of them - you can see it in the museum inside - are a few antique clocks, a few armchairs, chairs and cabinets.

But much more is going on outside, where Taiwan's wild life rages behind a small green area known as "Peace Park."The musicians here play German songs on home organs or they are dressed as Indians from the U.S. but are really from Peru. The waves from the river crash high over the walls, but the tea drinkers and fish eaters here don't let that spoil their fun.

Next to the pleasure-seekers, who can afford meter-high ice cream creations that a vendor places with acrobatic skill on tiny wafers, sit motionless old men with fishing rods, and large sailboats pass majestically by. A perfect excursion in Taiwan - and who has no rental car, comes in the evening in the bus very close to all the others who have been on the road here today.

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