Tainan Wu Family Garden: Explore One of Taiwan's Four Great Gardens

West Central Dist., Tainan City
Sightseeing
This time, I visited the 'Wu Family Garden' in Tainan. I had been looking forward to it because it is a famous attraction known as one of the "Four Great Gardens of Taiwan," along with Wufeng Lin Family Garden, Hsinchu Beiguo Garden, and Banqiao Lin Family Mansion and Garden. Every time I visit such historical sites, I feel special. Looking at the historical buildings and the descriptions of each item, a sense of inexplicable emotion wells up.

Wu Garden, originally named "Purple Spring Garden," was built by Wu Shang-hsin, a local gentry during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, and was also known as "Louzai Nei" at that time. Because the Wu family's wealth was the greatest in Fucheng, the construction of the garden was extremely magnificent. The garden was built along the high and low terrain, and famous craftsmen were hired to imitate the shape of Feilai Peak outside Zhangzhou City, arranging rockeries, pond pavilions, and exotic flowers and trees, making it the first in Fucheng.

Willow House
<Willow House> was built around 1934 during the Japanese colonial period and is one of the few remaining Japanese-style restaurants in Tainan City. The city government restored its main appearance to its original state, based on the principle of preserving the original design and solid construction. The wooden clapboard exterior walls and low rooms are full of Japanese flavor, elegant and simple.


The main building displays the stories and photos of the past.


Tainan Public Hall
<Tainan Public Hall> In the early days of the Japanese colonial period, Tainan lacked a spacious place for gatherings and banquets. Whenever the Japanese had gatherings and banquets, they would borrow the Wu family's residence from Wu Jixian (grandson of Wu Shangxin) or borrow the "Liangguang Guild Hall" located in Xingting 1st Street (formerly Longwang Temple Street) as a place for meetings and banquets.


In view of the elegant scenery of Wu Garden, local officials and people raised funds in 1908 to establish a private organization called "Tainan Public Hall" and selected this site as the location for building a modern public gathering place.

The descendants of the Wu family were forced by political pressure to finally sell more than 3,000 ping of Wu Garden land to the corporation to build "Tainan Public Hall." The construction project officially started in September 1910, and was completed and opened in early February 1911, marking the birth of the earliest modern building with public gathering functions in Taiwan.

Concert Hall
<Concert Hall> is currently not open for internal visits.

Behind the park, there is a very large lawn. It is common to see elderly people taking a walk, parents bringing children to play, and picnics on holidays. It is simply a great place for friends and family to get together, pass the time, and chat.

Outdoor Amphitheater
<Outdoor Amphitheater> Wu Garden has a large area, and the garden is elegant and lush. The large lawn and semi-circular stepped open-air stage provide various art groups with a new outdoor performance space, and it is open to the public for free viewing at night.


The surrounding walls use rockery landscaping, but they still cannot effectively block the real world seen visually, so it still feels a bit out of place.

This door is what I care about the most. It is pulled back to the modern 2021 in an instant. Is this the door to time travel?


Row Houses, Zuolixuan, Four-Corner Pavilion
<Row Houses, Zuolixuan, Four-Corner Pavilion> After the Tainan Social Education Hall moved out of the Public Hall in 1994, there was an idea to convert it into a commercial building, but fortunately it was later abandoned, and the elegant Wu Garden was preserved.


I think this is a great place to bring a book and sit on the chairs outside the row house to read for an entire afternoon, relaxing and calming the pressure brought by the real world.

'Wu Family Garden'
Address: No. 30, Section 2, Minquan Road, West Central District, Tainan City
Phone: 06-2289250
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 8:00~20:00
Fee information: Free
Published in 2021