Keelung Tower Audio Guide

Keelung Tower: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Keelung Tower

   Welcome to Keelung Tower, known locally as 基隆塔. You are in Zhongzheng District, in the port city of Keelung on Taiwan's northern coast. This is one of the city's newest landmarks. It opened to the public in December 2023, which makes it a very young neighbor in a city whose story reaches back to Spanish fort-builders in the 1600s. The tower is a vertical link in a larger scheme. It belongs to the Keelung Mountain Sea City Reconnection Project. Its lower end meets the Yi Er Road commercial district, and its upper end reaches toward the Zhupu Altar and Zhongzheng Park. In a city squeezed between steep hills and a busy harbor, that kind of connection matters. Some visitors describe its look as spaceship-like. In the next few minutes we will look at its design, the ground it stands on, and the story of how it got its name.

2. 02

   A Tower Shaped Like a Harbor Crane

   Look at the silhouette and think about the docks. The tower's form takes its inspiration from the bridge cranes of Keelung Harbor, those great steel gantries that load and unload container ships. It is a clever choice for a city whose identity has always been tied to its port. The structure stands about 60 meters tall. Its open-air viewing platform, set at the top, is 86 meters long, so the platform is longer than the tower is tall. Inside, there are two elevators, which carry you up the slope instead of making you climb it. Another part of the project is an air-raid shelter near the Xin Er Road intersection. The tower was designed by the architect Chiu Wen-chieh and built by the construction company Yili. It is a lookout first and foremost. The original plan described a viewing deck that serves as a sightseeing attraction, and a high pedestrian walkway meant to tie the tower to the Zhupu Altar. So think of it less as a monument to admire from a distance, and more as a machine for moving people between the busy streets below and the hillside above.

3. 03

   The Ground Beneath the Tower

   This site has had several lives. In the Japanese colonial period, the hillside was home to Kyuhoji temple on Xingguo Mountain. Later, the spot held the Second Precinct of the Keelung City Police Bureau. Today the tower rises where that old police station once stood. The idea of building here goes back to 2018. That year, the city government publicly unveiled its Mountain Sea City Reconnection Project in its annual policy report. The plan called for a landmark facility with elevators and a vertical access tower on the old police precinct site, and it also included the air-raid shelter at Xin Er Road. Groundbreaking took place in September 2019. The budget was a little over 300 million New Taiwan dollars. The central government contributed more than 260 million of that, and Keelung's city government raised about 100 million. It is a good example of how a city on a steep hillside can use modern engineering to knit together neighborhoods that were once separated by slope.

4. 04

   Naming a Tower, Opening the Doors

   Even the name was put to a public vote. In October 2021, the city government invited residents to choose between two options: Keelung Tower and Hope Tower. By December the result was announced, and Keelung Tower won. The next milestone came in 2022 with the topping-out ceremony, which was hosted by the mayor of the time, Lin Yu-chang, together with the director of the national Construction and Planning Agency, Wu Xin-xiu. In 2023, the right to operate the interior went to a company called Yuanjian Humanities Space. A trial run from the fifth to the tenth of December let visitors in free of charge, and the plan going forward was to charge an admission fee to people who do not live in Keelung. Before you go, it is worth checking current hours and ticket rules locally, since arrangements like these can change. It is also worth knowing the larger setting. Keelung is nicknamed the Rainy Harbor, a pun on the words for rain and fishing, so a visit here may come with weather as part of the experience.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Keelung Tower is a fresh chapter in a very old harbor story. The city around you has seen Spanish settlers, Qing dynasty reformers and fierce battles during the nineteenth century. In the 1880s the first governor of Taiwan Province under the Qing dynasty, Liu Mingchuan, set about improving the harbor and building a railway toward Taipei. All of that happened within sight of the waters that the tower's crane-like silhouette now echoes. As you look around, try to trace the tower's role as a connector. Notice how the lower streets near Yi Er Road, the hillside of Zhongzheng Park and the area of the Zhupu Altar fit together. Notice, too, how the harbor seems to shape everything below you. And if the rain starts, remember that this city has always been a place of weather, water and ships. Keep exploring the nearby slopes and the waterfront, and you will find more layers of Keelung waiting.