About Tamsui

 About Tamsui
Tamsui town is located in the northwest of the Taipei Basin, bordered by a mountain (Datun Mountain) and river (Tamsui River). Therefore, it has both mountain villages and riverside characteristics where beautiful scenery and distinguished people, human civilization and exquisite objects, are gathered together. There are 42 units in the current administrative sites which comprise a total area of  70.65 square kilometers. Tamsui District now has 3 universities, 2 general and vocational high schools, 3 junior high schools and 14 elementary schools, with a student population of almost 35,000 persons. Therefore, the total population in Tamsui is approximately 200,000 if migrant populations are included.
District Government Reorganization to Face New Challenges
The city development plan needs a healthy and flexible organization to lead, as the head of train, and the district Government is the highest administrative institution that is making a difference. Therefore, in order to develop Tamsui as a diversified District with many cultural, leisure and sightseeing activities, the District Government expanded the original 11 sections and offices – Civil Affairs Section, Finance Section, Cultural Affairs Section, Construction Section, Public Works Section, Industrial Tourism Section, General Affairs Office, Budgeting Accounting and Statistics Office, Personnel Office, Civil Service Ethics Office, Administration Office Environmental Sanitation , Clildcare Center and Library – to 13 units. We adopted “Cultural Tamsui, Healthy District” as our vision for District development. We recently established a cultural affairs section to direct the promotion of art and culture in Tamsui, and also organize and assist various art and cultural groups’ activities and community development. We sincerely hope that we can improve the living quality for residents in this District through cultural accomplishments.

In addition, we changed the name of the Agriculture Section to the Industrial Tourism Section to meet the requirements of industrial and tourism development in Tamsui without limitation to traditional services. We hope that we can modify traditional agriculture, fishery and livestock breeding industries to satisfy modern tourism and leisure development and improve local residents’ economic conditions through professional assistance and resource integration. We separated the Construction and Engineering Affairs Sections to take care of city development plans and infrastructure maintenance, respectively, to accomplish all-in-one city management.

Cultural Construction in Tamsui
The famous scenery and rich historical cultures in Tamsui have attracted almost 7 million visitors every year. After getting off the MRT, tourists will mostly travel to shops on the so called Old Street, that is, the main commercial area. Therefore, they probably just encounter some locally known snacks and the part of riverbank scenes while missing the cultural aspects of Tamsui. Recognizing this shortcoming, Tamsui District Government is aggressively promoting the “Art Neighborhood” project to allow tourists to know Tamsui better, thus, they established the Art Park. This park starts from Mackay Memorial Triangle Garden and extends to the latter section of Jung Jeng Road, reaching the Tamhai area. The intent is to connect Jung Jeng Road from the head to tail. It creates a journey in which you can enjoy the graceful and romantic views, taste gourmet foods and draw a rich cultural breath. The current Art Neighborhood project is divided into three phases, including modification of original space, establishment of Art Square, and completion of art exhibitions to bring them close to the tourists. 

The origin of Tamsui Art Neighborhood stems from the hope to complete the preservation of the refinements of Tamsui’s people, the historical epitome of Tamsui, by reusing idle space for the extension of art and becoming a haven for artists. Now, progress of the Art Neighborhood project can be seen through Art Hall, a culmination of the tearing down of originally idled buildings to seek out the historical traces of the renowned Dr. Mackay’s religious and medical contributions. As a result, from Jung Jeng Road one can now reach the Tamsui Church and Hobe Hospital. Also, the plans for Tidal View Art Square and Mackay’s Landing are also hoped to provide a temporary rest spot for tourists to enjoy the historical feeling as the tide rises and wanes. 

The ongoing plans by the District Government call for a thorough check of the District properties in this section with the hope to reuse the space to unite historical sites with artists, providing workshops for artists in the future. Furthermore, such spots as the Red Brick Tribal Area, Story House and Bunun Church will form a very diversified block, allowing tourists to experience the vitality of local artistic creativity in Tamsui. Finally, we will create a brand new look that will be totally different from the past for Tamsui.

Another plan to enhance cultural development in Tamsui is the general community development and interchange with international cities of which the District Government spares no effort. For most people, the park is the most natural media between humans and land. In order to provide green land to our residents, the District Government plans to construct the Tamsui Peace Park. This name is meant to commemorate the many battles which occurred in Tamsui and their remnants. It embodies our hope that Tamsui residents pray for permanent peace. We expect to place a 90 year-old Japanese building in the park which is a gift from the residents of Kobe, Japan. The origin of this gift is from Japanese friends who worked to reconstruct Kobe after their devastating earthquake. We know that certain Japanese citizens arrived in Taiwan at their own travelling costs to assist rescue operations after our 921 earthquake even though they were also under continuing their own earthquake reconstruction. We deeply admired their community coherence and we have forged a good friendship, therefore Japanese residents decided to donate this historical building to us. The young people and residents in the community will jointly reconstruct this old building under the direction of a Japanese architect. We believe this will be a refined example of the revitalization of Tamsui communities and also showcase our communications among international cities.

Charming Tamsui, Free and Easy Travel
 In addition to the most famous sunset view and local delicacies, ancient sites and art spaces, the District Government has scheduled various activities respectively for different seasons in order to integrate local festivals, industries and cultural development to enrich tourists’ visits to Tamsui. Because the Tamsui mountains in spring are dotted with cherry blossoms, the District Government welcomes the “Huwei Cherry Blossoms Season” and “Huwei Carrot Festival”, uniting the scenery of Huwei Cherry Blossom Avenue with the local produce. As the petals of cherry blossoms fall down everywhere in March, you would feel like you are in the cherry country – Japan.  

Hot sunshine and the sound of cicadas accompany the summer in June. There are erect sunflowers and a flower sea in all colors. You will never regret this trip to the Tunshan mountain area in the suburbs of Tamsui. To cooperate with the Fallow Land Diversity project promoted by the Council of Agriculture and to further community development, the District Government organizes the “Tamsui Flower Festival”, uniting with Tunshan community residents to provide tourists an amazing experience of dialogue with Nature by promoting tours for ecological, agricultural and fishery village sightseeing in addition to the bright flower fields one after another.

During autumn in Tamsui, the cool weather has yet to appear, but the breath of art and culture is full in the streets and alleys. In October you will encounter “Tamsui Art Alive in the Neighborhood”, an annual festival. The very popular Nakashi from the 50’s appears again at the Tamsui riverbank. Moreover, all kinds of creative art and cultural performances further enrich and warm Tamsui.

Every year the District sponsored “Artists in Schools” program culminates in the “Children’s Art Festival”, the event most anticipated by students. It will show the artworks of students from different schools in a myriad of ways, most notably, the parade along Old Street which attracts the attention of tourists and residents alike.

Besides the planning for thematic activities in the four seasons, the District Government further provides public space – the walls of subordinated organizations, the retaining wall and the external wall of the MRT lines – to showcase various Tamsui images. In addition, it is worth mentioning the light sculpture creation built with the cooperation of the Taipei County Government outside the District Township Office building, which has become the most romantic and apparent landscape feature along the riverbank illuminating the words “Electro-light Recreation City”.


City Image － Healthy Tamsui, Going International
Among 319 Districts in Taiwan, Tamsui was ranked third as the “Home of Smiles” and gained top ratings with respect to five other livability indexes, “Friendliness”, “Cleanliness,” “Taste,” “Attributes” and “Happiness.” These accomplishments are because we believe that the most important issue for a healthy humanity, fundamental to urban development and the land and people, is how the land is conserved. 

Although Tamsui has almost 7 million visitors every year due to its status as the most favorite travel destination for Taiwanese tourists for five successive years, issues of interior affairs still require attention. With this in mind, the Tamsui District Government has invited the graduate school of urban planning at Yangming University to jointly analyze environmental, medical care and social security issues with the expectation of achieving a healthy, beautiful, safe and sustainable District administration via communication with residents and their participation in making Tamsui a healthy city along with promoting community development, professionalizing the emergency response network, and cultivating a cultural and spiritual infrastructure.

To further this effort, the Tamsui District Government founded the “Healthy Tamsui District Association for Healthy City Development” in November 2007. We also officially submitted documentation and proposals to the WHO, Office of Secretaries in the West Pacific Ocean at the Tokyo Medical University for review at the end of February 2008. We expect to be approved as one of the alliance for healthy cities by May. We believe that this effort will not only improve the living quality of Tamsui residences, but also promote Tamsui internationally and spread our international outlook.

Seeking New Life and Development for Traditional Industries in Tamsui
Tamsui’s development started as a port town in the early stages, then, gradually developed to the mountain areas. Therefore, the traditional industries in Tamsui include fishery, agriculture and livestock breeding. However, according to our plan for city development, we recognize that tourism and leisure industries are inevitable trends in the future. Moreover, the population physically engaging in traditional industries is very small. Therefore, the transition of industries is unavoidable. The Fisherman’s Wharf renovation plan was intended to increase the value of wharf real estate through the combination of multifunctional tourism and leisure businesses. Now, all of Fisherman’s Wharf Square, including parks and green land, the shopping street, boardwalk and Lovers’ Bridge are planned well. We still have such projects as Cultural Creation Park in Sha-Lweng Bathing Beach, Asia International Art Village, and Electro-light Recreation City on Tamsui River Outlet, which are all oriented to the diversification of tourism resource connections, leading to industrial development.

Though Tamsui already has more than 20 different leisure farms, they have difficulty attracting tourists due to separate operations and traffic problems. Seeing that, the District Government first asked the industrial tourism section to proceed with a preliminary survey of mountain area sightseeing to find possible resolutions and corresponding plans. The District Government will also take the role of industrial advisor to assist local residents in applying for the establishment of a “Special Area for Tamsui Leisure Agriculture” in order to fulfill the leisure space plans in the mountain area and achieve the goal of permanent operation of combined recreational farming, ecology and production.

City Revolution
Sometimes the development of a city can become its main burden once it exceeds the bearable capacity of the city and its administration, creating many problems. The consumption by Tamsui’s population, nearly 200,000 and mostly concentrated in the downtown area, results in inferior living quality with respect to traffic, garbage and insufficient green space, leading to further problems. Actually, the hinterland of Tamsui is fairly large, 1,300 hectares for the area of new Tamsui District promoted by the Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior for many years running. Accordingly, the administration building originally located at Jung Jeng Old Street takes the lead by moving to a building under construction in the new city in Tamhai. We further invite other local governmental agencies – Tamsui Household Office, Land Office, Police Station, Banks and Tax Office – to move as well in order to obtain the goal of “One Building Service” and provide citizens with more convenient place to deal with administrative matters.

In addition, the multi-function land near the new District Government Building not only has common park facilities, but also includes space for a planned international concert hall, international design center, ecological pool and convenient traffic network. We hope the urban pressure of the original Tamsui Town may be partially transferred and allow the original place be used more efficiently and effectively to avoid the reoccurrence of modern urban problems.