Located in Lane 60 of Hiking Street in Gushan District, this area was once overgrown with weeds but has now been transformed into an outdoor historical exhibition space. It will be managed and utilized by National Sun Yat-sen University under commission. (Photo by Lin Hongcong)
This place was originally home to several illegal structures, and after their demolition, some remnants were left to coexist with the surrounding buildings. (Photo by Lin Hongcong)
The aged walls tell the story of a century of history, creating an intriguing contrast with the modern buildings around them. (Photo by Lin Hongcong)

The Kaohsiung City Government secured funding from the Ministry of Culture to propose the Xingbin Project for Hamasen and the Jiancheng Project for the Old Fengshan City in Zuoying, aiming to restore these areas over eight years with a total investment of NT$2.7 billion. Among them, Hiking Street Lane 60, a historic site where an ancient path intersects with a waterway, officially opened on September 30, marking the completion of Taiwan’s first “Revitalizing Historical Sites Plan” site.

The Ministry of Culture provides subsidies to cities and counties for their “Revitalizing Historical Sites Plans.” The Kaohsiung City Government’s Jiancheng Project received NT$2 billion, and the Xingbin Project NT$700 million, making it the only municipality to have both proposals approved. The “Jiancheng” Project aims to revive the splendor of Taiwan’s first stone-built Old Fengshan City in Zuoying, while the “Xingbin” Project is divided into four main themes—Mountain, Port, Railway, and Town—to revitalize the historical area of Hamasen.

Today, the Mountain theme under the Xingbin Project, a collaboration between the Kaohsiung City Government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau and Urban Development Bureau, proudly announced the completion of the historic site at Hiking Street Lane 60. This area was once a meeting point across different eras for Swinhoe, the British consular vice-consul; Liu Mingchuan, the Governor of Taiwan; and Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan. In the future, it will serve as an outdoor historical exhibition space, allowing visitors to travel through time. Related facilities will be maintained and managed by National Sun Yat-sen University.

Mayor Chen Chu stated that every city has its own stories, and the daily lives of people from various periods accumulate to form the city’s history. Only by understanding the past can one recognize oneself and move toward the future. The city government plans to gradually revive the multi-layered temporal and spatial changes of Hamasen over eight years. “It’s very moving to see history converging here.”

The city government held the completion ceremony for Hiking Street Lane 60 this evening, with Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture Yang Zibao personally attending to witness the event. He praised Kaohsiung for faithfully and quality-executing the Revitalizing Historical Sites Plan. An engineer by training, he also quoted an industry saying, “Construction enables urban development, but culture makes a city great,” offering his blessings to Kaohsiung.

The Kaohsiung City Government pointed out that the “Revitalizing Historical Sites Plan” aims to revive the historical memories of the land and its people. Kaohsiung’s Jiancheng and Xingbin projects are rare, large-scale cultural asset preservation and revitalization efforts in recent years, and also serve as model projects guided and explained by the Ministry of Culture to other municipalities. In the future, the city government will continue to deepen the city’s cultural foundation and reshape the public’s perception of Kaohsiung.

(China Times)