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The old Fongshan City in Zuoying District of Kaohsiung is announced as first-class heritage by Ministry of the Interior in 1985. The city was changed into a national monument after Cultural Heritage Preservation Act was revised in 2006. And in 2011, after Council for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Cultural Affairs afterward) had included the wall of West Gate into the range of the national monument, the heritage had become an important and complete cultural asset with subsidiary constructions, such as a moat, temple, wall, and door gods statues.

/ Old Fongshan City /

Old Fongshan City, also known as old Zuoying City, is situated in Zuoying District of Kaohsiung City. Since Zuoying District was organized in Fongshan County in Qing Dynasty, the city is also called Fongshan County Town. Old Zuoying City is the earliest (1825) and largest ancient city in all the well-preserved cities in Taiwan. Relics of prehistoric, Qing Dynasty, Japanese Colonial Period, and Nationalist Government Period could all be found in the city’s cultural layers. Old Zuoying City has included five areas which are East Gate, North Gate, West Gate, South Gate, and downtown area.

/ East Gate /

East Gate is also known as Fongyi Gate. The name comes from the fact if you search for Fongshan from the gate, you will find the mountain spreading like a flying phoenix which means good fortune. Between East Gate and New North Gate, there is an ancient passage for military and business purpose called “passage of two gates”. People of Zuoying used to go to farmland by the East Gate, therefore the gate is also called “East Gate Foot”.
Holes on the gate is big on the inside and small on the outside in order to defeat enemies. There are nine embrasures on the gate. The embrasure in the middle is for arrows, and the smaller one on the side is the peaking hole. The moat of the East Gate is also one of the irrigation channels of Tsao Kung Tsun. The hexagon-shaped bridge at the gate is especially design for better water flow. The drain device, which is called “watergate”, is equipped with three marble bars to avoid invasion of the enemy.

/ North Gate /

The North Gate is also known as Gong Chen Gate. The word Chen means the northern star and Gong Chen has the meaning of “being benevolence when ruling as the northern star. People will admire you like stars around it.” The most special part of the North Gate is that there is a pair of door gods on two sides of the gate. This is the only case in Taiwan’s old cities. The door gods were made of shell powder, with paints and ink lines on the surface. Even though the paints were already gone, the looks of the gods are still lively and prestigious. As for why there are door gods on the gate, people are presuming that it might because the North Gate is the front gate where inspection officers from Tainan Fu will usually go through, so door gods are sculpted in order to show dignity.

/ South Gate /

The South Gate is also known as Ciwen Gate. Ancient people believe that south is the direction in charge of the civil business. Therefore, the name is blessing people to get positions in the government. Walls on two sides of the gate are removed in 1919 for the Provincial Highway 1 (Zuoying Avenue) and turned into a roundabout where people can see North Gate directly.

/ Downtown /

The city had been changed in the past a hundred years, and we can hardly know how prosperous it was, but according to research, we can find out positions of some temples, such as Hsing Lung Temple, Mazu Temple, Guan Di Temple, Cih Ji Temple, Guang Ji Temple, Fire God Temple, Temple of Agriculture, and Kaizhang Shengwang Temple. Some of the temples are moved while some others were gone.
Ruins of old Zuoying City is at the south-west of Kwei Shan, with about 10,000 square meters and was planned to build four 15-floor mansions back to 2004. However, according to the research and pre-excavation from the team of archaeology professor Liu, Yi-Chang, two important cultural layers of prehistoric and historic periods are evaluated to be underneath the land with treasures from the past.