By Trista di Genova / The Wild East / Beautiful island

For me personally, Tamsui (淡水) has some of the most endearing of Taiwan’s features– fresh-air strolls along its lovely boardwalk, now Youbike-enabled cycling past the serene and picturesque Tamsui River (淡水河), Guanyin Mountain (觀音山).

It might just be the best spot in Taiwan for sampling local delicacies here and on Old Street (老街), such as the freakish deep-fried squid on a stick (has anyone ever checked the calories on that?!) ‘iron eggs’, nougat candies, ginger tea, and so on. The boardwalk in the past ten years has really thrived and become a beautiful wonderland of nature and history.

Moving down the boardwalk, Tamsui’s historic district is filled with many striking reminders of George McKay, perhaps the most colorful character in Formosan history. These photos show the Foreign Cemetery where McKay is buried, which on the present-day Tamkang High School campus (second photo), once part of Oxford College.

McKay (1844-1901) was a Scottish-Canadian Presbyterian missionary who during the Qing era set up the island’s first Western-style educational institution, Oxford College, as well as the Tamsui Girls School, the first for girls in Taiwan. Most in Taiwan today know him well for the excellent memorial hospitals in his name, such as the McKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei.

Statues of the bearded McKay such as this one give some indication of the force of presence of this man, who could be called the island’s first dentist.

One could say that for McKay finding new converts to his Western religion was like pulling teeth, literally. Few people know he married a local Aboriginal woman and had children; no doubt this alliance helped him assimilate into this at-times hostile, unknown frontier. One wonders why there are no museums about the man! Biographies speak of the natives in Bangka (now Wanhua District in Taipei), at that time the major trading port in Formosa who pelted the ‘foreign devil’ (洋鬼子) as he walked the streets, seeking new converts.

Qing dynasty style architecture in Tamsui’s historic district is interwoven with Western-style buildings, left over by British, Dutch and Spanish would-be colonizers, from the 16th to 20th centuries.

Fort Domingo, the customs building and other historic landmarks in this area lend Tamsui its distinction as one of the few places in Taiwan where such history is clearly and so beautifully preserved. If the museums in Tamsui were more state-of-the-art, we’d all be that much better off.

Looks like Tamsui’s made a comeback on the cultural stage, go and check it out?

What are some of the things you like about Tamsui culture and history? Post your comments below.