Beimen

Běimén (北門) is a coastal district in northwestern Tainan, immediately adjacent to Budai in Chiayi. The area developed as a trading post along the periphery of Daofeng Lagoon (倒風內海), which later silted up. Salt production began around the 1830s and only ceased in 2002. During World War 2, the Beimen Bromine Tower was constructed in 1939 to extract bromine from seawater as part of the war effort; the towers remain standing as industrial relics. In the post-war era, Beimen became the epicenter of Taiwan’s blackfoot disease epidemic, a severe peripheral vascular condition caused by arsenic contamination in artesian well water, with a peak in the late 1950s soon blunted by the introduction of clean tap water which dramatically reduced cases. Today the district features heritage sites including the Nankunshen Daitianfu Temple, a national monument, and the Jingzaijiao tile-paved salt field (井仔腳瓦盤鹽田), which preserves traditional salt-making techniques.