Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan, as well as the country's original capital. The city is full of historic sites that have been there for hundreds of years, but now one of these landmarks is facing some changes.
Anping Fort in Tainan is well-known as the oldest fortress in the country. Many people immediately associate the name with its remodeled red and white towers, but the real historical site is actually the surrounding city walls.
A recent excavation revealed that there are even more architectural relics around the fort. These newly found relics are from the Dutch colonization period, when the site was known as Fort Zeelandia.
The Tainan City Government applied to the Bureau of Cultural Heritage to classify Anping Fort and surrounding areas together as a national historic site. The bureau has already approved changing the name from Anping Fort to Fort Zeelandia.
Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau director Ye Tse-shan says authorities will change some of the signs around the fort to describe it more accurately as Fort Zeelandia. But not everyone is on board with these changes.
Historian Cheng Tao-tseng says changing the name from Anping Fort to Fort Zeelandia does not encompass everything that the site represents to Tainan residents. He says the new name only references the period of Dutch rule, but the site contains relics from several different colonial periods.
Some Tainan residents say the site has always been called Anping Fort, and it's better to keep the same name that has such a long history. When it comes to updating historic sites, it looks like getting public support may not be as easy as government approval.