Reign Period Year 11), he first recruited Taiwan’s wealthiest figure Lin Wei-yuan as the General Overseer of Keelung port construction projects. Subsequently, foreign engineers were hired to survey the harbor and set out a development blueprint, which included dredging the inner harbor, making landfills to extend the shoreline outward, plus construction of canals, warehouses and other port facilities. In addition, in consideration of the commercial, coastal defense and transport needs of Taiwan as a whole, construction of a Keelung-Taipei railroad was begun. As part of that project, the Shihchiuling Tunnel was the first example of tunnel construction in the history of Chinese railways. The railway link with Taipei was completed in 1891 (Kuang Hsu Year 17). A third major item of construction was the Western-style state-run coaling facilitywas Keelung’s year-round rainy, windy weather and the low-lying topography of its streets, as a consequence of which it had a reputation for being a “breeding ground for pestilence.”

Keelung Railway Station during the Japanese colonial era,the most important complex for land-sea shipment of cargoes to and from Keelung.

While Liu Ming-chuan had endeavored to build up Keelung’s port facilities, his actual accomplishments in that regard were limited. The period in which it can be said that Keelung was truly impelled into a modern stage of development was the Japanese colonial era. Subsequent to the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 (Year 29 in Meiji Era), by which Taiwan became Japan’s first overseas colony, in order to facilitate shipment of large quantities of manpower and materiel to Taiwan, the Japanese Viceroy’s