Today we are here at the South District of Tainan City.
The origin of South District dates back to the Japanese colonial period.
It borders the sea to the west,
while Anping District and West-Central District to the north.
There used to be fishing villages and salt fields in the South District,
which is very different from a downtown scene.
It enjoys, a serene and slow pace of life.
As you come here, you will find another old Tainan lifestyle.
Let’s go to the South District
and find out what’s so special about here.
Located near the Tainan Gold Coast,
Shishu Old Street is a 300-year-old fishing village.
It was gradually forgotten
due to population outflow and the increasing urban-rural gap.
In recent years,
local residents have started to revitalize the community
with a history- and culture-centered theme.
They developed the cultural and creative industry
in the old street with painting and graffiti.
As a result, Shishu is now a famous village of street paintings and art creation.
Hey, I can smell the sweetness of traditional Chinese cake,
and there are a lot of traditional Chinese cake stores in Tainan City.
This store has a long history
and it makes a lot of different kinds of snacks and traditional Chinese cakes here.
So, do you want to learn more?
Let’s go check it out.
Hi, how are you?
Hello.
So, now do you mix the maltose?
Now I need to cook it,
and then pour the pastry out after a few minutes and wait until it’s sticky.
Then I can shape it.
The most famous item here, in this store, is the flour pastry.
And this flour pastry is only made by flour, egg, and sugar.
These snacks, before, it was used for engagement.
And now it is mostly used for worshiping the god.
And also a lot of people would also take it as a snack.
Every god wants different things.
When Lantern Festival comes,
people pray with turtles,
so we make many turtle-shaped flour pastries.
A lot of people would like to make turtle flour pastry
because it means that they can live longer and have a happy life.
Now she is shaping it into a fish or sheep or pig,
Because, traditionally, a lot of people would worship the god
by praying fish or pig, or, like, different kinds of meat.
But now, since it’s more eco-friendly
and it’s more convenient to just prepare such a snack,
a lot of people started to buy this kind of snack
instead of buying real meat to worship the god.
It smells so good!
Walking into the Sishu Old Street,
I can feel the especially serene and relaxing atmosphere.
Hi, how are you?
Do you want to buy some rice?
Yeah!
Here, this store has been opened for, like, 62 or 63 years,
and the reason why it could maintain such an old traditional way
is that it is all customized.
So, whenever a customer call them and say,
“I want how many grams of rice,”
they would prepare the requirements for the customer
and send the rice directly to the house.
Could this work again?
It still works. However, we are in the age of technology.
Rice milled by this machine will not be white.
Nowadays, rice is mostly sorted by computer.
People prefer good-looking rice,
but rice milled by machine is darker.
The rice isn’t that white.
Computers, on the other hand, select whiter rice?
Yes, rice selected by computers is whiter.
Because I am interested in handicrafts,
I make some bags with the materials I use in my daily life.
The reason why the owner of this rice store
want to make this handmade stuff is that
she wanted to reuse all the resources she can get from her daily life.
For example, she would make these kind of purses or pencil bags from the rice bags.
And so, nowadays, she would even sell it to people who are interested in it.
Just like this one.
Some newlyweds order these types of handmade items,
and I make them as gifts to give out to wedding guests.
Can I order this when I get married?
In about ten years.
I have never seen such a traditional rice store,
and aside from the rice store and the stuff they’ve preserved,
these cool beverage handbags are also stuff that I find that so interesting.
So, if you are interested in this creative handmade stuff,
just come here and visit this place.
I love it so much! Bye!
The success of the once-declined old fishing village
to a famous tourist attraction
lies in the effort of some elderly people who live here.
And so, inspired by the most-frequently-seen things in this area,
this village, are fishes.
And so they made a lot of creative stuff,
like pencil bags or purses, in the shape of fish.
And these things are so creative and so cool that
a lot of people started to come here and buy a lot of these products,
and so they are sometimes in short supply.
They have brought Sishu back to the spotlight again.
Now, I am going to interview an elderly resident who makes the fish bag
and see how a fish bag is made.
Hi!
This is so cute!
The pared loofah can be added to oyster vermicelli.
Super delicious.
This is a famous delicacy from Tainan.
The milkfish’s head.
This is a key ring that doubles as a purse.
This is a little purse that can put some coins.
This is the head of milkfish.
Milkfish is a very famous fish in Tainan.
Back in those days they used to eat the fish.
Nowadays, they started to make this creative stuff by hand.
This is the fish’s skin.
This is the lining.
We sew the zipper from the inside.
So, first of all,
they have to start from the zipper.
And then they have to start, from the inside,
sewing all these things together.
So, you see, they are very exquisite.
Everything is handmade.
We can do this in our leisure time.
Otherwise, we can only stay at home
and play with grandchildren when we get old.
Because a lot of youngsters in this village moved out,
and a lot of people retired from their work,
residents started to find something meaningful to do.
And so, after their retirement,
they have teachers to teach them how to do handmade stuff.
So, they started to make these things
that make their life more meaningful and more inspirational.
One of my favorite is the cabbage!
Because, as you can see the inside,
it is the exactly how it looks inside the cabbage!
It looks exactly the same.
Okay, three, two, one.
Unlike Shishu,
which is a quieter place and more suitable to live in.
Here at Wanli old street,
it is more crowded,
and there are more things going on here.
Wanli community can be traced back to the Qing dynasty.
And up till now,
it remains the landscape of an old rural village.
The street and atmosphere here are vastly different from downtown Tainan.
As you walk into the alleys and lanes of Wanli,
you’ll find surprises wherever you go.
It is in these alleys and lanes that you can get to experience
what the daily life in early Taiwanese society was like.
We are now here at Wan-nian Temple.
This temple was established in 1729,
and this is the religious center around this area.
Also, there is a big park right in front of this temple
where people can enjoy their free time with their families and friends.
And the most important thing here
is the king boat that has a history of 300-year-old.
Welcome, Miss. Liu.
Allow me to introduce the Wan-nian Temple in Wanli.
Wanli Wan-nian Temple’s full name is Wanli Dai-tian Temple.
It is dedicated to the Lord Yeh, Lord Chu, and Lord Li.
This door god was painted by Master Tsai Tsao-ru.
He painted this piece personally.
And then, he hired Master Su Shui-chin and Master Su Hai-ping to carve it.
This temple worships Lord Yeh, Lord Chu, and Lord Li;
It’s a kind of God in Taiwan.
And also, this door is very famous.
It’s very thin,
and it’s the only door that was supervised by a very famous teacher here.
This way was first established by Master Tsai Tsao-ru.
He used a writing brush and white powder to make a blue print.
And then he hired others to carve it.
This artwork is mainly made of stone,
and one thing that is very pitiful is that
because this stone is relatively soft,
after the winds blowing on the stone
it started to get really destructive.
If we want to preserve this stone art,
we have to pay a lot of attention on it.
When it comes to the King Boat,
it’s one of the main features of Wan-nian Temple.
To put it simply,
it is a type of transportation used by nobles.
When Koxinga came to Taiwan from Fujian,
the boat they built was shaped exactly like this King Boat.
We hold a Taoist sacrificial ceremony.
After the ceremony,
it will go on a patrol.
Our King Boat is preserved by its ancient shape.
Every time we have a Taoist sacrificial ceremony,
the King Boat needs to sail on the water,
and we have to repair it.
It is waterproof after we repair it.
When the Taiwanese people wanted to send Koxinga
and his son’s coffins back to the Mainland China,
they also used this boat, the King Boat,
to send them back as a respect.
Today
we have come to the South District
to visit two different areas—Sishu and Wanli.
These two places are full of historical and cultural heritages.
Among the long history of Tainan City,
the South District has developed a special feature and created a brand-new aspect of the Tainan City.
So, the residents here live a slow but easy and simple lifestyle.
There are not only old houses or old monuments left,
but also the philosophy and lifestyle that has been passed down by our ancient people.
So, now
I am going to explore more different areas here at South District.
Let’s go.