Rajeev's World: The British Outpost At Takow... Part I

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The British Outpost At Takow... Part I

By the time we had our breakfast, the sun was shining brightly. And we wanted to make the best of the little time we had in this weather, which was rather nice.

The nearest we could go to was the historic building known as the Former British Consulate at Takow.

Located a 10 minute taxi ride away from our hotel on Daren Road, this red brick colonial building is perched atop Shaochuantou Hill in Gushan District and overlooks Xiziwan Bay and Port of Kaohsiung.

In the 1800s, Western powers were attracted to China due to its legendary riches. The Qing Dynasty, which was skeptical of these overtures denied them the rights to "free trade". Then the British pumped in opium from India (which is really sad - India also was at the receiving end - cropping patterns were changed, forcing Indian farmers to grow opium and indigo for the nefarious designs of the colonials. And Indians were forcibly made party to this carnage in the Orient, though one Indian community, the Parsis immensely profited from the ill gotten wealth from the opium trade). This is the historic grudge that China has with India, but little do they realise that at that time we were just pawns in the hands of the British.

This ended up corrupting and wasting Chinese youth of that age. The Qings resisted and battles erupted between the Western powers and China. At the end of it, the British won, getting concessions to a number of Chinese ports - Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Canton and ports in Taiwan - Takau (Takow).

But in a little more than century, the tables have turned. China and India have become the economic centre of gravity. And they day isn't far when Britain could have an Indian prime minister, a fact that was acknowledged by David Cameron recently.

The consulate here was nothing more than a trading outpost from where the British supervised their trading activities. Now was it bona fide trade or was it a plunder? That's a question that you could answer for yourself.

A view of Xiziwan Bay...

Robert Swinhoe was appointed as the first British vice-consul in 1861, in the consulate which was housed out of Tamsui, shifting to Kaohsiung (Takow, as it was known then) in 1864. This building was built in 1879 with supplies and materials brought over from Amoy (present day Xiamen) on the Mainland. The building was rented by the British in 1867 and then Swinhoe was appointed as the first Consul General in Formosa and held office until his retirement in 1873.