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Friday, January 05, 2018

Then and Now: the Chosui River bridge UPDATED

The top photo was uploaded by National Historic Monuments of Taiwan, which is a great Facebook group for old Taiwan images. The top picture shows buses crossing the Zhoushui River (濁水溪) between Yunlin and Changhua counties during the Japanese era. The shot had to be taken upriver because downriver the land is flat and farmed. This spot on the 21 south of Shuili appears to be the location of that bridge, which I think is now the Longshen Bridge on the 21. Image from Google. Would welcome corrections if anyone knows for sure.

UPDATE: Nope, I was totally wrong. Great comment below

The bridge is located between today's Yilan and Hualien. 

The name "Lö-Tsui (濁水)" (Muddy Waters) ["Zhuo-sh(u)ei" in Today's Mandarin] was often used in pioneer-Taiwan to name a river.

Due to Taiwan's general geographic features with very high mountains meeting the ocean almost outright face-to-face, water in rivers runs fast and is often muddy. There are a lot of "Lö-Tsui" ["Zhuo-Shuei"] throughout Taiwan. The most famous "Lö-Tsui (濁水)" is of course the one located between Yunlin and Changhua that you refer to.

The picture was a suspended bridge over a "Large Lö-Tsui Kau" (大濁水溝)[in Today's Mandarin, it's transcribed as "大濁水溪"]. There is a "Small Lö-Tsui Kau". It means that the locals differentiated two rivers as "Large Muddy Waters" and "Small Muddy Waters".

The KMT regime came after WWII and named this river as "Her-Ping River" (和平溪).

See Wikipedia entry (in Traditional Chinese) of this river:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E5%92%8C%E5%B9%B3%E6%BA%AA

See another picture of this bridge (Wikipedia):

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taiwan_formosa_vintage_history_other_places_bridges_suspension_taipics045.jpg


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2 comments:

  1. >>Would welcome corrections if anyone knows for sure

    The bridge is located between today's Yilan and Hualien.

    The name "Lö-Tsui (濁水)" (Muddy Waters) ["Zhuo-sh(u)ei" in Today's Mandarin] was often used in pioneer-Taiwan to name a river.

    Due to Taiwan's general geographic features with very high mountains meeting the ocean almost outright face-to-face, water in rivers runs fast and is often muddy. There are a lot of "Lö-Tsui" ["Zhuo-Shuei"] throughout Taiwan. The most famous "Lö-Tsui (濁水)" is of course the one located between Yunlin and Changhua that you refer to.

    The picture was a suspended bridge over a "Large Lö-Tsui Kau" (大濁水溝)[in Today's Mandarin, it's transcribed as "大濁水溪"]. There is a "Small Lö-Tsui Kau". It means that the locals differentiated two rivers as "Large Muddy Waters" and "Small Muddy Waters".

    The KMT regime came after WWII and named this river as "Her-Ping River" (和平溪).

    See Wikipedia entry (in Traditional Chinese) of this river:
    https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E5%92%8C%E5%B9%B3%E6%BA%AA

    See another picture of this bridge (Wikipedia):

    https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taiwan_formosa_vintage_history_other_places_bridges_suspension_taipics045.jpg

    ReplyDelete

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