Budai

Budai (布袋) is a coastal township in southwestern Chiayi County formerly known as Budaizui (布袋嘴). Japanese forces landed here in 1895 to complete their encirclement of Tainan during the invasion of Taiwan. The township was once a major center of Taiwan’s salt industry; the Zhounan salt fields, established in 1824, was among the largest salt-producing sites in the country. Commercial production ceased in 2001, ending 355 years of solar salt-making on Taiwan’s southwest coast, though some areas have been revived for tourism and education as of 2008. At its economic peak in the 1970s, when salt and oyster farming sustained the local economy, there were more than five theaters operating in the township, but only the ruins of Ruimao Theater remain standing today. Today the township is better known as a port for ferries to Penghu.