Annan

Ānnán (安南) is a low-lying coastal district characterized by suburban sprawl along the margins of Tainan City and traditional villages in the hinterland, many of them on former sandbars now surrounded by land reclaimed from the former Taijiang Lagoon (台江內海). The district holds exceptional historical significance as the site of Lu’ermen (鹿耳門), where Koxinga’s fleet sailed through the channel at high tide in 1661 to bypass Dutch defenses and land in Taiwan, commemorated by several major temples including the Orthodox Lu’ermen Shengmu Temple and the Lu’ermen Zhenmen Temple. The Qing dynasty brought coastal fortifications such as Sicao Fort completed in 1840, while the Japanese colonial period saw the establishment of the Anshun Saltworks in 1921, which remained operational until 1996.