serve as canals, the volume of trade handled by Keelung Harbor leapt beyond that of Tamsui, taking its place as the number one seaport in Taiwan.

Due to the ever-rising volume of shipping, a third phase of construction was launched in 1929 (Showa Year 4), during which the scope of facility development was extended to include the outer harbor, while the inner harbor was reorganized to handle purely commercial operations, and fishing ports were built at Sheliao Island (present-day Hoping Island) and Pachihmen. The fourth phase of construction was entered into in 1935 (Showa Year 10). Under the influence of Japan’s Southward Policy and subsequent war in the Pacific, and in order to augment Keelung Harbor’s shipping capacity during the war years, additional seawalls were built closer to theentrance of the outer harbor on its east and west sides, and a large-scale dry dock facility was constructed on Sheliao Island.

Over this 46-year construction period, Keelung Harbor was catapulted from its original status as hardly more than a fishing village into the ranks of a modernized seaport on a par with world standards. For the people of Keelung, this development brought not only flourishing business opportunities but, more importantly, accelerated improvement of the city’s system of streets.

In possession of the most advanced port facilities in Japanese colonial Taiwan, and experiencing a tremendous increase in the volume of goods which it swallowed and spit out, the traditional streets of the Keelung which had once been a mere service station for passing junks were no longer suited to the