Historical Spots of Chiayi City

Historical spots, the survival traces and historical symbols of our ancients, are full of life wisdom and immortal history; they are the most valuable historical assets of human and has been regarded as non-replaced cultural treasury. Chiayi had been developed quite earlier, with its civilization and prosperous resources, there should have many historical spots left in Chiayi. Nevertheless, for the sake of earthquakes and war disasters, houses were destroyed and decayed. At the end of Japanese ruling time, in order to promote emperor-civilian policy, Shiyenchuan Tienshaoping ordered to abolish 63 temples in the city, and only Chenhuang temple, Dichung temple, and Shen temple were survived. Because of that, the temples had been nearly destroyed, which was the casualty of Chiayi city.

In 1982, the government regulated preservation law of cultural assets, wishing to maintain and reserve historical spots, and the Domestic Affairs then authorized “Chiayi Chenhuang temple”, “Wangzumu Sutaifu tomb”, and “Pachiang xi Yitu” the three places as the third-level historical spots. Until May 1997, the government modified the regulations and gave the county and city government rights to inspect and authorize historical spots. After inspection and evaluation, Chiayi has added “Chiyi Jenwu temple”, “Chiayi forest club”, “Ali Mountain Railroad Peimen Post”, “Subsidiary mansion of the original Chiayi temple”, “the Public Sales Board of Chiayi Branch”, “Chiayi Shu Chou Ancients Temple”, “Chiayi Railway Station”, etc., as historical spots of the city. On June 6, 2002 , the city government authorized “Chiayi Old Prison” as municipal historical spot, there are 11 historical spots as a total in Chiayi city.

1.Chiayi Chenhuang temple – Chenhuang temple, constructed and   repaired by the well-known artisan Jingmu Wang, is a temple with delicate wooden sculpture.

2.Wangzumu Sutaifu tomb – an ancient tomb that is related to Delu Wang, Marine Supervisor of the Ching dynasty.

3.Pachiang xi Yitu – one of the little remaining Yitu stele in Taiwan .

4.Chiyi Jenwu temple – an ancient temple with fine and delicate   wooden and stone sculptures.

5.Chiayi forest club (guests and visitors entertaining place of Ali   Mountain ) – the wooden western-styled building has unique   characteristics.

6.Ali Mountain Railroad Peimen Post – a wooden and small-   scale railway station.

7.Chiayi Railway Station – an eclecticism architecture of 1930,   its exterior used military brown bricks.

8.Subsidiary mansion of the original Chiayi temple – a typical   Japanese wooden architecture, with fine wooden carving.

9.The Public Sales Board of Chiayi Branch – It is a mature   architecture that combined with steel and concrete, presenting   the double characteristics of succinct & lively features of   modern architecture and bricks era, which contains arts values   of architecture.

10.Chiayi Shu Chou Ancients Temple – It is a rarely seen   architecture that has transformed from a civilian house into a   temple. With typical Mingnan ChuangChou-styled feature, the   architecture's condition is well preserved.

11.Chiayi Old Prison – In terms of historical meaning, it is an   important architecture presenting the prison development at   the time when Japan ruled Taiwan ; beside, the architecture   demonstrated close development relationship with Yuanchia   district of China. In terms of architecture arts, it is one of the   only two remaining Japanese peninsula-styled architectures in   the world. It was made of Ali Mountain woods that particularly   demonstrates unique and special historical meaning.