Hsinchu Qianyuan

Qiányuán (潛園) was a private garden built by the Qing dynasty poet and philanthropist Lín Zhànméi (林占梅) inside the west gate of the walls of Zhúqiàn (竹塹城), now Hsinchu City. Construction began in 1849 and completed in 1864 at a cost of 180,000 silver taels. Once considered one of Taiwan’s five great gardens (五大名園), it was requisitioned by Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa (北白川宮能久親王) during the 1895 Japanese invasion. The Japanese colonial government later used road construction as a pretext to cut through the estate, demolishing the main residence in 1939 as retribution against the Lin family’s anti-Japanese stance. Remaining structures were gradually lost to post-war urban development, and in June 2012 the landowner demolished the last surviving gatehouse, inscribed by Lin Zhanmei himself, to build a parking lot. Plans to restore the gatehouse elsewhere were met by public condemnation over a lack of transparency and have stalled ever since.