Tainan Travel

The history of watercourse (canal) construction in Tainan can be dated back to 1897. In that year, W. K. Burton, a sanitary technician of the Governor-General of Taiwan, and Hamano Yashiro, his student and assistant, started an investigation on the water resources and water quality in Tainan. In 1912 the waterworks construction project started, and the facility was completed ten years later in 1922.

The canal taking water from the Tsengwen River previously supplied drinking water to the Tainan City. It was gradually decommissioned after the completion of the Wusanto Reservoir, Tsengwen Dam, and Tanting Water Purification Plant respectively. Watercourse construction in Tainan has witnessed the history of sanitary engineering modernization during the Japanese rule. The waterworks has been designated as a country historical monument in 2002 and then a national historical monument in 2005. The Tainan City Government started the historical monument restoration plan in 2011. After integrating with the Agriculture Bureau’s nursery, the old waterworks was planned into the “Tainan Shan-Shang Garden and Old Waterworks Museum” starting service in 2019.

The Tainan Shan-Shang Garden and Old Waterworks Museum includes the Museum Site and a Purification Pond Site about 1km away. In the Museum Site, there are national historical monuments including Hall A- Quick Filter Pond Room, Hall B-Filter Room and Watercourse Office, and Hall C-Pump Exhaust Room; Hamano Yashiro stone tablet and bronze statue; and the rare flora. In the Purification Pond Site, there are the Purification Water Pond, Water Measurement Facilities Room, Water Purification Pond Path, and the bat ecology site to combine culture, ecology, recreation, and education.