Cihou Fort Audio Guide

Cihou Fort: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Cihou Fort

   Welcome to Cihou Fort, known locally as 旗後砲台. It stands on Cihou Mountain at the northern tip of Cijin, the long, narrow island that shields Kaohsiung's harbor. From up here, the old defenders watched the channel that every ship had to pass to enter or leave the port. This is a fort built with a clear purpose. It was designed to guard the harbor mouth, and its position tells you why. Cijin sits across the water from the mainland, and the fort looks down on the narrow passage between them. Today it is a nationally designated monument. It was first classified as a second-class monument in 1985, and in 2019 it was raised to national monument status. In the next few minutes we will look at why the Qing court built the fort, how its walls and gate blend Chinese and Western styles, and what happened here when warships arrived in 1895. We will also follow its long second life, from wartime gun position to restored heritage site.

2. 02

   Cihou Fort and the Guardians of the Harbor

   Military guns were already posted at this spot in the early Qing period. The fort you see today dates from a crisis in 1874. Japanese troops landed near Hengchun, in what is known as the Mudan Incident. The Qing court responded by sending the imperial commissioner Shen Baozhen to Taiwan to strengthen its coastal defenses. Under him, the commanders Tang Dingkui and Wang Fulu took charge. They brought in a British instructor, J. W. Harwood, to help direct the building of modern forts to protect Kaohsiung's harbor. The result was a layered system. Cihou Fort took the middle position, and Shaochuantou Fort, on the opposite side of the channel, took the low one. A third fort stood high on the mountain behind. Cihou and Shaochuantou faced each other across the water. Because Cihou sits higher, the two forts' fields of fire crossed from different heights, which made the crossfire tighter. That third fort, Dapingding, came later, in the time of Liu Mingchuan, who brought in the German engineer Max Hecht to build new forts. Dapingding was larger than Cihou. Historians describe the plan this way: the highly visible Cihou and Shaochuantou forts would draw an enemy's attention and fire, while the concealed fort on the mountain struck back from hiding.

3. 03

   A Fort of East and West: Cihou Fort's Design

   As you approach, look at the entrance first. The gate is a traditional Chinese form, flaring in a shape like the character for eight, with the walls angled inward toward the door. Above it, the inscription reads Wei Zhen Tian Nan, which means mighty power shaking the southern skies. On the brick wall beside the gate, red bricks are laid in the pattern of the double happiness character, a festive symbol that is rare to find on a fort. It is a surprisingly cheerful decoration for a military site. Inside, the layout follows the Western approach to coastal defense. The fort is divided into three zones. The northern zone is the drill ground, the middle zone is the command area, and the southern zone held the big guns. Soldiers' quarters were built along the inside of the thick walls, and four gun positions sit above them. In the past, two guns stood on the western side, with one each at the southern and northern ends, and rails were laid so that the guns could be moved on iron wheels. The builders used iron, cement and red brick, with dense timber beams and thick layers of iron-reinforced concrete. Look down as well. The brick steps are laid in decorative patterns. On the western side of the drill ground, you will find a plastered altar table with upturned ends, which was used for offerings.

4. 04

   Cihou Fort Under Fire and Through the Decades

   In 1894, as the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, Cihou Fort was equipped with four British eight-inch Armstrong breech-loading guns. Early the next year, on the first of February 1895, an explosion tore through the fort. About one ton of locally made gunpowder blew up for reasons that remain unknown. The blast cracked the protective walls in many places and killed about a hundred soldiers. Liu Chengliang, the adopted son of the commander Liu Yongfu, then took over the defense and led the repairs. The real test came that October, when Japan's forces arrived to take Taiwan. At 6:55 on the morning of the fifteenth, the cruiser Yoshino, leading ships including Akitsushima, opened fire. The Black Flag Army, under Liu Yongfu and Liu Chengliang, answered with a fierce artillery duel that lasted until evening. In the end, Japanese forces broke through and landed. The fort's story did not end there. Late in the Japanese period, during the Pacific War, the fort was turned into an anti-aircraft position. Its original guns were removed and several bunkers were added. After the war, the army held the hill and added machine gun nests, bunkers, barracks and tunnels. For decades this was a restricted military zone, and the old fort slowly decayed.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   The fort's revival began in 1988, when the military, the city government and elected representatives negotiated over opening the hill's military spaces. Some facilities and land were cleared and handed to the city. Restoration began in 1991 and was completed in 1995, bringing back most of the fort's original appearance, and the fort opened to visitors. If you are planning your own climb, two paths lead up the hill. One starts from the lighthouse side and the other from the fort side, and the two connect at the top. Many visitors reach Cijin by ferry from the Gushan ferry terminal. At the fort, treat the old walls gently. Some wall surfaces have suffered from graffiti, and they are a national monument. Before you leave, take one more look at the water below. Picture the guns at Cihou Fort and the guns across the channel at Shaochuantou, aimed at the same narrow gap. Then look for the lighthouse along the hill's northern side, which keeps a very different kind of watch over the harbor.