Taipei - Dansui (3) - Fort San Domingo

The historic town of Dansui, Taipei Taiwan is famouse for its three F's - Food, Fabulous View, and Fort San Domingo.

You won't have a complete tour of Dansui unless you've seen all the three F's. Now you've seen the first two F's teh the previous articles we will introduce the last and the most famous F's in Dansui - Fort San Domingo.

History
San Domingo? mm.... wait a minute, isn't that sounds a little bit Spanish? That's right. The red brick wall fort was actually built by Spanish in 1629 as they tried to establish a military, political, and trading forefront. However it was in 1644, after the Dutch take-over of Dansui two years prior, that the fort was re-constructed with red brick walls which last till present days. The Dutch's reconstruction to Fort San Domingo is probably why it gets the name Hong-Mou Cheng or Fort of Red-Hair as the locals used to named the Dutch as Red Hair.


British Consulate Residence
Right beside Fort San Domingo is the former British Consulate. In 1860, the British were interested in Dansui sea port and later in 1867 Fort San Domingo became the British Consulate. 20 years later in 1891 the residence for British Consulate is built right beside Fort San Domingo.

The fort was under the management of Great Britan and later to Australia and to United States. Until 1980 Fort San Domingo officially returned back to the local government.

Location and Hour
Fort San Domingo is located at the very end of Dansui Old Street, a 20 minutes walk from Dansui MRT station. It's opened 9am to 4:30pm Tuesday to Sunday. The entrance fee is about 30 TWD or 1 dollar US.