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.gif) Tales of Sanchong |
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Chenggong Market |
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 Sanchong is located on the west bank of the Danshuei River and covers 16.317 km2 of land in the center of the Taipei Basin. The busy commercial districts of Mengjia and Dadaocheng are just across the river. When Liu Mingchuan was appointed the first Governor-General of Taiwan, to promote the adoption of the steam railway the Danshuei Wood Bridge (predecessor of the Taipei Bridge) connecting Sanchong and Dadaocheng was built in 1889. The rail link helped Sanchong’s agricultural produce reach new markets. Being built of wood, the Danshuei Wood Bridge’s piers were very vulnerable to flooding and required constant repair. The railway was therefore rerouted after ten years by the Japanese who had by then taken control of Taiwan. This marked the end of the railway in Sanchong and the train whistles no longer sounded across its fields.
The earliest written records indicate that Sanchong was inhabited by the Wuwan settlement of the Pingpu Tribes during the Ming-Zheng Period (1661). Development first began at Touchongpu in Sinjhuang (the Minnan people referred to wild areas a “Pu”) and the settlement that sprung up downstream became known as Erchongpu (now the area around Dingkan). Sanchongpu was the last area of wilderness to be developed so the name of the city itself remembers the history of those early settlers. On April 1 1947, Sanchong Township was made separate from Lujhou Township and in 1962 was officially upgraded to a county city. |
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The Golden Years of Agriculture – Jasmine, Fruits and Vegetables |
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 During the Japanese Colonial Period Sanchong was once Taipei’s most importance source of flowers and oranges. These were the golden years for the tea trade in Dadaocheng across the river and there was a strong demand for jasmine flowers for use in making jasmine tea. Up to 38 hectares of land in Sanchong were once given over to growing jasmine, mountain jasmine and cape jasmine. These flowers were then used to make high-quality teas for export. The two poems “The thousand yard bridge spans the river as painted boats throng the ancient landing. The white jasmine on the far shore cover the land like snow and as the breeze rises, ripples fan across the waters” and “Sanchongpu flows in to Erchongpu, ten thousand acres of flower farms with ten thousand blooms. Though the grain rains and clear seasons have come and gone, the flowers bloom as if never picked” collected in Taiwan’s One Hundred Great Bamboo Poems provide a perfect description of how extensive the jasmine farms were in Sanchong. Oranges and vegetables were once the lifeblood of the city’s economy. Eventually the government’s adoption of a food first policy led to a decline in production and their ultimate demise. |
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Workshops to Offices, Rags to Riches |
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 The freeway terminates at Sanchong making it easy to travel between northern and southern Taiwan. With the prosperous Taipei City just across the river, these two advantages make it the city with the largest number of migrants in Taiwan. Taiwan’s largest labor market used to be located under the Taipei Bridge. Even today tens of thousands of Sanchong residents still cross the bridge every day to work in Taipei City, creating its buildings and prosperity.
The 1970’s and 1980’s were the time of the Ten Major Construction Projects and the start of Taiwan’s miracle. Inspired by the slogan “Every living room is a workshop” from the governor Hsieh, Tung-min, Sanchong began to industrialize in 1969. Small factory workshops sprung up along the streets and alleys until there was one everywhere you cared to look. Most of these manufactured the parts needed for screws, casting, spot welding, plating, machining and plastic injection molding, eventually accounting for more than half of all the parts used by Taiwan’s machine industry. The development not only brought economic dividends but also transformed Sanchong from an agricultural town to an industrial city. In just 80 years, the hard-working people Sanchong built their city up from scratch to become the brightest pearl on the banks of the Danshuei River.
Known as the “City of Seven Bridges”, Sanchong will encourage the development of the technology industry in the future. Welcome to join us. |
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