Seventy percent of the Earth¡¦s surface is covered with ocean water. The relationship between mankind and oceans has been intimate since ancient times. Through out human history, oceans and seas have been responsible for countless births of cities, which all share a unique character-Vitality.
Nevertheless, seas and
oceans have also pounded up huge waves of confrontations
among countries and people as well as led new ways of
thinking to different parts of world. In the Chin Dynasty,
Western powers came ashore from the southeastern sea and
introduced Mainland China with new contacts that it had never
experienced before. In Europe, the challenges of the unknown
oceans motivated and activated ¡§the Great Period of Sailing¡¨.
It forever changed many life styles, academic and political
statuses since the Europeans found a new continent on the
other side of Atlantic Ocean. Before the aviation era, oceans
played a crucial role of transporting information and goods
from continent to continent. A typical example that happened
in the middle of the Ming Dynasty was when some Christian
priests came to China by sea. They brought modern western
inventions with them and really opened Chinese eyes for the
first time to those life-enhancing devices. Only then Chinese
began to acknowledge that they had better modify their
impression of the Europeans who were formerly referred to as
¡§cheese consuming white barbarians¡¨.
The development of Kaohsiung started in the late Ming Dynasty from a small fishing port adjacent to the saline marshes. It is only slightly younger than Taiwan, which is the oldest city in Taiwan, and is as old as Boston, Massachusetts, and U.S.A. For a city with more than three hundred years of history, Kaohsiung has never lost its vigor. Influences from other cultures were constantly imported through the Port of Kaoshiung. In the Chin Dynasty, Kaohsiung was the first to install telegraph cables; during the Japanese occupation, the cement and sugar industries were initiated in Kaohsiung; when the Seventh Fleet of the US Navy was stationed here after WWII, downtown Kaohsiung was once filled with foreign faces and exotic businesses.
Over the years, due to
the ¡§Favoring the North over the South¡¨ policy, the
political and economic center shifted up to Taipei. And
consequently caused Kaohsiung to slow downs its urban growth
and its share of new information. Southern folks used to earn
a reputation of being ¡§reserved and conservative¡¨.
However, today people enjoy a wide range of knowledge and
vision of the world thanks to Kaohsiung Harbor¡¦s busy
trading activities. In the meantime, it has drawn the
attention from the government to Kaohsiung¡¦s unique
feature. We are going to take realistic actions, which
combine the backing of the history and the most advanced
data, to navigate the future of Kaohsiung and to prove that
it has more vitality and potential to offer to our
international society.
Although the Great Period of Sailing is long gone, the people of Kaohsiung will always have a passion for the sea. Kaohsiung¡¥s history was conceived through its port; Kaoshiung¡¦s energy has been generated from the port, too. In this article, we will take off from Kaoshiung Harbor and conduct an observation of this yet to be greater port city-Kaoshiung.
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