Imagine having a front-row seat to a spectacle that lasts not merely for a few hours, but for centuries.
The southern tip of a hill that guards the northern side of the narrow entrance to Takao Harbor (in present-day Kaohsiung) had always been a prime location for anyone who wanted to monitor the trade activities between the city and the rest of the world. That is why following the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858 and the Treaty of Peking in 1860 to conclude the Second Opium War, the British as the victors would soon establish a consulate at this site in the southwestern part of Taiwan.
In 1878, construction started on the structures that would host London’s diplomatic and trade offices as well as the consular residence on top and at the foot of the hill. Using red bricks produced in Amoy (modern-day Xiamen in mainland China), the consulate building was completed in 1879. Once operational, the British orchestrated their economic and political affairs on the island from these premises. However, as a result of Japan’s victory over China in 1895 that ended the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing dynasty had to relinquish its control over Taiwan. At first, this didn’t have a significant impact on the British mission there. But in 1910, the consulate was officially closed as it was seized by the Japanese colonial administration.
During World War II, the former British consulate building was spared from destruction. But it did witness bombs being dropped by American forces on the harbor of Kaohsiung. We all know that the Japanese eventually surrendered in 1945, and we also know how four years later the nationalist government of China fled to Taiwan, concluding the decades-long Chinese Civil War. In the aftermath of the many wars that engulfed the region, the economic conditions on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were in a dire state.
However, decades later, Taiwan emerged as one of the Four Asian Tigers with the port of Kaohsiung being one of the most important gears in the country’s growth engine. And at the moment, the former British consulate is witnessing yet another interesting chapter in the Taiwanese city’s history where it is transforming into a world-class creative hub without completely abandoning its industrial legacies.
If the red brick walls of the former British consulate* could talk, I wonder what stories they would tell us after seeing multiple wars and conflicts, the city’s destruction, the constant flow of boats and ships, and the dramatic change of the skyline. In 1986, the municipal government of Kaohsiung commissioned the restoration of the former consulate after it was severely damaged by a typhoon almost a decade earlier. In the early 2000s, the work continued, and in 2013 it finally reopened its doors to the public as a café. We didn’t dine there and we opted for spending more time standing at the building’s east veranda, marveling at the sweeping views of Kaohsiung right before our eyes. This compound really occupies a front-row seat to everything that has happened and will happen in this dynamic city.
This compound has seen many things, from wars and regime changes to the dramatic economic growth of Taiwan
*Later on, based on the documents found at the British National Archives, it was discovered that what for more than a century had been believed to be the consulate building was in fact the official residence attached to the consulate (which is located at the foot of the hill). However, generally the structure at the top of the hill is still referred to as the former British consulate.