| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 台灣文化研究所碩士班 === 100 === Gangshan was called Agongdian prior to year 1920, it was an important midway stop between capital city Tainan and Kaohsiung(formerly called Takao). Due to frequent pass throughs by the travelers from north and south, the range of the locality gradually expanded. Finally, in 1936, the “villa” was upgraded to administrative status of “street”, and growth in population drove further political and economical development. The fact it was once an important military base during Japanese era shroud it with military feel, and led to merciless American bombings of the area during World War 2. Nevertheless, Gangshan’s culture diversified and enriched by the encampment of massive Japanese military forces and its location as a traffic hub.
Transportation is said to be the greatest contributing factor in Gangshan’s development. During the earlier days, Agongdian River was able to allow river-going by vessels, because the first street of Gangshan, Weiren Road, was built along the river bank and piers were built close to the street. Post Japanese era, Agongdian River was silted with sediments, along with annual floods, this forced the government of Japan to reconstruct, but also resulted in total abandonment of Agongdian River shipping lane. Ceaase of rover-going routes shifted more weight to ground transportation and its importance increased over time, longitudinal road and railroad were built east of old street Weiren Road, and resulted in first wave of Gangshan City Space expansion. ROC Year 82, Gangshan train station relocated eastward by 300 meters, and that caused the second expansion of Gangshan City Space. Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Gangshan station is scheduled to be completed in ROC Year 101, it is believed that it will bring a whole new transportation impact to the area, Gangshan’s expansion to the south can be expected.
Because of the easiness of transportation, plus it is located in the middle of two major cities, Tainan and Kaohsiung, so Gangshan has long been known to be a trading hub. Which gave births to two large traditional Taiwanese marketplaces: Basket Meet and Cattle Market. Gangshan’s Basket Meet is held three times a year and it has 300 years of history as it was established back in Qing Era. The market provides a trading place for people to trade farm tools and other goods, in recent years, there has been changes to the mode of the meet and location of the meet, but it still maintained the tradition of being held three times a year, so the tradition can be passed on in Gangshan. Gangshan cattle market was the earliest cattle market, it was established in 1924, when Taiwan’s agrarian industry has yet to be mechanized and demand for cattle existed. As the agricultural industry began to adopt machines over cattles, Gangshan cattle market finally became history in ROC Year 69 due to eventual decline of cattle trading.
Gangshan City Space developed from “l” shaped commercial street in Qing Era to “卜” shaped commercial zone in Japanese Era, and finally into “H” shaped commercial district in the initial period after World War Two. With the Gangshan train staion moved towards east which brought expansions to the streets, the commercial streets in Gangshan had expanded from “H” shaped into “double H” shaped. It is belived that after Kaohsiung City merged with Kaohsiung County, the range expansion of whole Kaohsiung Municipality and the increase of public works will bring a new style and look to Gangshan.
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