Taijiang National Park in southwest Taiwan and is the country’s first wetland-type national park. Stretching from the Yanshui River in the south to the Jiudingshan Yantian District in the north, the park includes locally important rivers such as the Zengwen, Luermen and Qigu rivers have formed this unique landscape where the ocean tides roll in and out. Taijiang National Park spans Tainan City’s coastal Qigu and Annan districts, where many residents rely on this coastal wetland to make a living.
Longshan Village is an important residential and commercial center in Zhongqigu District. During the Japanese occupation (1895-1945), Longshan Village was called “Xiashan Ziliao Hamlet”. After the war, it was renamed “Xiashan Village” and later “Longshan Village”. In the two small villages of “Xiashanzailiao” and “Hailiaozai”, most residents engage in oyster farming and fishing in the Qigu Lagoon or run fish farms near the lagoon. The main species are Tainan’s iconic milkfish and clams—the nation’s largest source of clams is here.
The traditional religious culture of the Longshan Village community centers on the Longshan Temple, where Chifu Qiansui resides as the main deity. With subsidies from the government’s Fishing Village Enrichment Program, this central temple has been given an entrance archway in the local style, decorated with mosaic fish and black-faced spoonbills. The archway has become an important tourist attraction.
The many oyster farmers in Longshan Village paddle their fishing rafts around the lagoon carrying spats (young oysters) and harvesting oyster strings. The Qigu Lagoon and Wangzaliao Sandbar offer various fishing experience tours for tourists to experience the contrast between the calm Qigu Lagoon and the turbulent waves of the Taiwan Strait. This, and the ecology of fiddler crabs on the Wangzailiao Sandbar, have formed a rich local experience-centered tourism sector. Residents’ guided tours embody the new generation of national park tourism, that is local people explaining local affairs.