Historical, attached to its ways, and Taiwanese

Founded in the early eighteenth century, Lugang (鹿港) was once one of Taiwan’s busiest ports. Along with Tainan and Manka (Mengjia, today's Wanhua District of Taipei), Lugang was considered one of Taiwan's three largest cities, giving rise to the saying "The first is Tainan, second is Lugang, and third is Manka (Mengjia)."

Domestic and foreign tourists invade Lugang on weekends and holidays to relish its easy and friendly pace. On Lunar New Year, visitors from all over Taiwan walk through its winding alleys, pray at the 400-year old Longshan Temple (龍山寺), or stroll along Chungshan Road (中山路). Famous Lugang delicacies include flour milk with sesame balls (麵茶加麻恅).

Lugang---historical, attached to its ways, and Taiwanese, has become a haven for artists. The miniature shop of Mr. Tsai Wang-dah (蔡旺達), the shop of lantern maker Wu Dun-hou (吳敦厚), and the glass products on display at the Taiwan Mirror Glass Enterprise are as famous as Longshan Temple, the Old Street (老街) and the Ding Mansion (丁家古厝).

This is the home not just of artists, but also of successful businessmen---Acer Founder Stan Shih (施振榮), Asus Chairman Jonny Shih (施崇棠), and Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corporation (康師傅) Founder Wei He-de (魏和德) all come from Lugang.

Ding Mansion (丁家古厝)

Lugang’s Ding Mansion, built over a hundred years ago, is one of the few remaining structures that were built according to the architectural principle of “space depth” (三坎三進二院) or “Three Kan, Three Jins, Two Courtyards.” To give you an idea of what this means, the width of a shop front is one kan, the depth of a house is one jin.

The mansion’s two-storey fa?ade is 4.5 meters wide. Enter and you discover that it is 77 meters long, divided into different sections. You feel like entering a long tunnel of a mansion’s different rooms. Right inside the front door is a hall with a high ceiling. Right above the door, a wide window lets the sun shine through and the wind to blow through the hall and into the hallway in front. Looking up, you see a walkway 5 meters above, hugging the wooden wall, and looking down on the front door. Once a store that sold necessities to the villagers, its first section, or “jin,” was also used as a place for suppliers to deliver store items.

During the Japanese occupation, the Ding Mansion store was demolished to give way to a gravel cleaning shop. On October 25, 2000, the Changhua county government declared it a historical monument and started the work of restoration.

Longshan Temple (龍山寺)

Lugang’s Longshan Temple covers an area of around 5,300 square meters. Historians estimate that it was built during the late Ming to the early Cing Dynasty and was moved in 1786 to its present location along Jinmen St. in Lugang Town. The main gate opens out to a wide outer courtyard that leads to the front hall entrance. This front hall is a Chinese opera stage that opens out to the first inner courtyard at the end of which is the main hall that has an image of Guanyin Pusa (觀音菩薩). Behind this main hall lies another inner courtyard at the end of which is the rear hall.

Chinese immigrants to Taiwan from the counties of Jinjiang (晉江), Nan-an (南安), and Hui-an (惠安) in Fujien, China erected five temples and called them Longshan after the one built in the seventh century in Jinjiang County. The first temple was built in Tainan, the second in Lugang, the third in Taipei’s Wanhua, the fourth in Fengshan and the fifth in Danshui.

The Lugang Longshan is a first-grade national monument. It was severely damaged by the 921 earthquake in 1999 and is still under restoration. The budget for the entire work of restoration is over NT$200 million and over NT$20 million have already been spent on the initial work of documentation (compiling historical records, photographs and printing).

The Glass Museum

The Taiwan Mirror Glass Enterprise (台明將企業股份有限公司), has a huge warehouse on the first floor and a museum on the second. The museum’s glass vases, panels, and sculptures are a tribute to the work of glass artists who shape molten glass into vases, leaves, flowers and insects.

The Changeable Glass Door is made up of two glass panels attached to each other. One panel is transparent, the other opaque. Electric current passing through a thin metallic surface between them changes the whole panel from transparent to opaque.

The Glass Bridge is a two-meter wide transparent glass walkway with an arched roof. Walking through this corridor, you see specimens of sea shells, starfish, and plants beneath the glass.

The Folk Arts Museum (鹿港民俗文物館)

The former mansion of the Koo family, this baroque-style building was converted into a museum in 1973. It used to be the ancestral mansion of Koo Hsien-rong (辜顯榮), the patriarch of the Koo family. Taiwanese have traditionally recognized the Yen family of Jilong, the Lin family of Panchiao, the Lin family of Wufeng, the Chens of Kaohsiung, and Lugang’s Koo family as the five wealthiest clans in Taiwan.

Besides artifacts from Taiwan’s agrarian era, this museum best depicts the lifestyle of an affluent Chinese family from late 19th to early 20th century. It has an elegant entrance vestibule once decorated in Victorian style. The furniture and d?cor in many second floor rooms have been preserved, transporting the visitor to how the Koos once lived in Lugang. It also houses a fascinating collection of Ming and Ching dynasty artifacts---vintage photos, lacquer ware, porcelain, carved stone, embroidery, and musical instruments.