Waterfront Poetics:

Just as New York City is nourished by the Hudson, and Paris by the Seine, so the other major cities in the world boast their own rivers. Meandering among human dwellings, these waterways attest to the passage of time and serve as repositories of local memories.

Taipei is no exception. The Tamsui River has witnessed the evolution of the Taiwanese capital. River transport facilitated early trade in Taipei, contributing to the city’s economic and cultural prosperity. Even though modern-day Taiwanese cities no longer rely on inland waterways to transport goods, we continue to benefit from the rivers by transforming their banks into recreation grounds.

Slow life in Taipei

At the spring equinox, we visit Dadaocheng Wharf and meet up with Monica Kuo, professor of landscape architecture at Chinese Culture University, to explore the allure of Taipei’s riverbanks. Kuo says that Taipei is sheltered by mountains on three sides, with a river flowing into the sea on its fourth side: “If we take a walk on the floodplains beyond the levee, we realize just how close our lives are to the river.” Walking down to Dadaocheng Wharf, we are suddenly greeted by an expansive riverscape, and find ourselves slowing down to take in the view.

The levee shuts out the din of traffic along the busy roads of Dadaocheng. Visitors feel relaxed here while strolling, biking, or enjoying the sunshine. The nearby market pays tribute to the wharf’s history as a commercial hub, with a cluster of eateries housed in shipping containers. Customers place orders before ascending to the open-air roofs to enjoy their food and beer while admiring the scenery. Weather permitting, we can marvel at sweeping views over the Tamsui River, which are graced with the undulating contours of Mt. Guanyin, Mt. Datun, Mt. Qixing, and Mt. Xiaoguanyin.

At dusk, visitors delight in the beautiful sunset here. The lights illuminating the plaza at night give the wharf a charming atmosphere.

Another way to experience Taipei that Monica Kuo ­recommends is to go on a boat trip. Departing from Dadaocheng Wharf and heading for Tamsui, along the way we can gaze at the mountains, water birds, and fish, and gain a fresh view of Taipei from the river, tracing the city’s richly varied skyline. If we wish to delve deeper, we can opt for one of the package tours offered by local travel agencies and visit Dadaocheng’s historic sites with a guide, before traveling down the Tamsui River by boat. We can then disembark in Tamsui and continue to explore the town’s old streets and other local attractions at our leisure.

Kuo says that waterfront recreation is not confined to playing in the water in the traditional sense. It includes both visual and kinetic forms of entertainment. Some of Taipei’s aquatic environments are not open to swimmers, but we can go there for boating or surfing. For example, the Sisi Haha Wake School, based in Shilin District’s Shezidao area, caters to a range of watersports such as wakeboarding, wakesurfing, and sofa surfing (wakesurfing on a sofa-like inflatable boat). We obtain fresh insights into Taipei by connecting with water and savoring the pleasures of slow living.

Taking a boat trip down the Tamsui River, we can marvel at the surrounding mountains and watch water birds and fish. We get to experience Taipei’s beauty in a different way.

Monica Kuo believes that riverfront areas are precious public assets. Characterized by vast views, these places are worth visiting.

From the river, we gain a fresh view of Taipei’s various buildings and landmarks. This photo shows Chongyang Bridge across the Tamsui River.

Daylighting

In the context of urban development, bodies of water not only lend themselves to landscaping and recreation but also play vital ecological roles: they serve to regulate environmental conditions and provide habitats for various species.

Kuo tells us about the international trend of daylighting: “This involves opening up rivers and waterways that have been covered—that is, buried underground, paved over with concrete, or channelized—to give sunlight and life back to them.” The project of uncovering waterways is integral to the climate change strategies of many cities across the world.

In recent years, numerous towns in Taiwan have thrown in their lot with this international drive. The Spring in downtown Tainan is a case in point. The Tainan Chinatown mall used to stand on this site. Locals came here to watch movies, enjoy shopping and spend time with their romantic partners. With the passage of time, however, the once-fashionable shopping center fell into decline and remained shut for many years. It was not until the Tainan City Government bought the site and set about transforming it into a public park that a dialogue was initiated here about the relationship between water and the urban context.

Aquatic environments in towns and cities not only lend themselves to landscaping and recreation, but also help regulate environmental conditions and provide habitats. This photo shows the Love River in Kaohsiung. We can cycle, take a stroll, or go on a boat trip here. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Visitors to Dadaocheng Wharf can dine at eateries converted from shipping containers. After placing orders, they climb up to the roofs to enjoy their food and admire the scenery in a tranquil atmosphere. 

The Tainan City Government bought the site of Tainan Chinatown and created The Spring for the public to enjoy. Liao Hui-hsin says that The Spring has attracted substantial international attention because projects like this are rare.

The Spring, Tainan

MVRDV, a Rotterdam-based architecture and urban design studio, stood out in the international competitive tender for architectural designs. “We like challenging projects that respond to interesting issues,” says Liao Hui-hsin, head of MVRDV Taiwan. The team revisited the 400-year history of Tainan’s development and saw that even though Tainan as a whole has a rich variety of natural environments—including seacoast, mangroves, wetlands, and forests—the ground in its city center had long been concreted over. The demolition of Tainan Chinatown represented an opportunity to give nature—in the form of water and greenery—a stronger presence amidst the concrete jungle.

But the particularities of MVRDV’s proposal were inspired by the history of the site itself. Tainan Chinatown was situated on what used to be a dock along the Tainan Canal—a distribution center for fish and other goods. Tainan Chinatown was built here in the 1980s as part of urban development and became a major commercial hub. The aquatic past of the site was given pride of place in MVRDV’s design.

Designers of public squares usually concentrate on ground-level architectural elements before embellishing the space with water features such as fountains. “Since this particular site, as a silent witness to history, has such an interesting story to tell,” Liao says, “and since, after demolishing the old buildings, the basement had to be backfilled to carry the structural load, we thought we would take the existing conditions as a starting point for our design.” The team have thus given shape to a sunken plaza with pools shaped like lagoons. Paved with fine pebbles to evoke the textures of natural beaches, the new park invites us to connect with water and wade barefoot.

Liao says that as Tainan Chinatown was part and parcel of the history of the city’s development, MVRDV wanted to incorporate the remains of the old buildings into the new landscape, integrating them with the pools and the plaza to forge a design idiom firmly embedded in the local context. The team have preserved parts of the old beams, columns and foundations, and used a glass floor to expose to view the structure of a portion of the original second basement level. “Like visiting a heritage site, here we can see the past vividly,” says Liao, beaming with pleasure.

The Spring in Tainan is born of a demolished shopping center. Furnishing the city with a new watery space, this public park is Tainan’s response to the global trend of daylighting. (© Daria Scagliola/courtesy of MVRDV)

Dongshan River Forest Park

Yilan in Eastern Taiwan has intimate ties with water. Natural waterways are interlaced here with manmade irrigation channels, not only nourishing the fields of the Lanyang Plain but also lending support to the development of local ecotourism and environmental education. 

In the middle reaches of the Dongshan River, a forest has grown up out of paddy fields. This is Dongshan River Forest Park, a.k.a. Dongshan River Ecoark. Takano Landscape Planning spent 25 years creating this waterfront recreation area in Yilan County, transforming the place from treeless rice paddies into a verdant ecology park. 

“At first, we thought the forest park would be situated on a mountain, but when we came to inspect the site, we were surprised to find ourselves in the middle of a vast expanse of rice paddies, surrounded by river embankments. A railway line cut through the site. Nearby were Provincial Highway 9 and three rivers. The land was divided into four sections, like a jigsaw puzzle,” says Toshiya Ishimura, chief manager at Takano’s Taiwan branch. The team moved stones, removed earth, built slopes, and planted trees, sparing no effort to create a low-elevation forest that encompasses wetlands, meadows, and woodlands.

Visitors to the park enjoy the opportunity to explore a mysterious waterway on punt-like “mother duck boats”—traditional watercraft that used to be essential for Yilan’s rural economy. Inside the rocky tunnel along the way, we can marvel at the magical reflections of sunlight in the water and the dappled shadows on the rock surfaces. After dark, the tunnel is illuminated by otherworldly lights, as if we’ve entered the world of The Lord of the Rings.

Ascending to the highest point of the park, we find a fairytale treehouse. Its observation deck offers a broad view of the river and the lush surroundings. If we’re lucky, we can see a train swishing over the bridge here. “Starting from scratch, it took us 25 years to transform the rice paddies into a manmade forest park, turning ecology into a fun experience,” says Ishimura with visible pleasure.

MVRDV took advantage of the existing features of the site of The Spring to design a sunken plaza with pools. They managed to preserve parts of the original structures, forging a design idiom firmly embedded in Tainan’s local history. (© Daria Scagliola/courtesy of MVRDV)

The Spring is in the vicinity of the Tainan Canal. It both serves as a repository of local history and provides a welcome space in the city for locals to unwind and play in the water. (© Daria Scagliola/courtesy of MVRDV)

The Annong River

Going north from the Dongshan River, we come within sight of the Annong River. At one time overgrown and almost unapproachable, the riverbanks here have been reinvented as a pleasant environment full of life and greenery.

“The banks of the Annong River outside the levees used to be overgrown with silvergrass and full of rubbish. No one would dare to take a walk here. But the place has always had a wonderful ecosystem,” says Lee Yung-ting, one of the managers at Takano’s Taiwan branch. A fine balance between nature and human needs has since been achieved here. Thanks to a planning program that brought together public and private efforts, the riverbanks have metamorphosed into safe and inviting places that welcome all.

The Annong River is now clean, limpid, and vibrant with green life. People come here to cycle, watch birds, take a stroll, or enjoy rafting. The 17-­kilometer-­long ­cycle route passes underneath many road bridges, so cyclists can wheel through the luxuriant landscape safely and smoothly without having to dismount to cross the roads. Here we revel in the gentle breezes while admiring the waterways that meander through the fields. Serenity reigns as we come across one scenic spot after another, including the Flood Diversion Weir, Zhanggongwei Riverside Park, and the bald cypresses near Tianxin Bridge.

Further downstream is Weiqian Park, which boasts the first public “park golf” course in Taiwan. A combination of golf and croquet, park golf is easy to learn and is very popular among local residents. The park golf course here is maintained by the Weiqian Community Development Association. Players can book slots and rent equipment from them.

Monica Kuo says that the word recreation refers to leisure activities that offer opportunities to re-create—to heal, recharge, and revitalize ourselves. Aquatic environments in towns and cities can be redesigned and transformed into venues for a wide variety of leisure pursuits. “To connect with water, you don’t necessarily have to go into water. Rather, we can simply take a walk in the vicinity of water and get close to it. We can simply live with it.” 

Evoking the magical world of The Lord of the Rings, this tunnel is one of the most popular spots in Dongshan River Forest Park. The light and shadows here have different effects by day and by night. (courtesy of Takano Landscape Planning, Taiwan)

Why not go on a boat trip in Dongshan River Forest Park and enjoy the abundance of wildlife here?

Dongshan River Forest Park is home to a fairytale treehouse which offers wonderful views of the surrounding landscape. (courtesy of Takano Landscape Planning, Taiwan)

Visitors can go rafting on the Annong River, enjoying a frisson of excitement amidst cool splashes.

The reborn Annong River attracts visitors with its charming scenery. The bicycle route here offers opportunities to enjoy the serenity of rural Taiwan. (photo by Kent Chuang)