Dongshan

Dōngshān (東山) is a mostly mountainous rural district in eastern Tainan. It is home to Kabuasua Village, a community of Siraya Indigenous people. During the Japanese colonial era the area developed an industrial base including the privately-owned Dongyuan Qiandapu Sugar Factory and Niushan Oilfield, a petroleum extraction operation in the hilly back country with its own company town. Dongshan was also notable for its concentration of theaters, including the Dongshan Old Theater, established in 1922 as Taiwan’s first theater in a rural area, and the Tainan Dongshan Theater (1961), which remains standing though now repurposed as a warehouse. Today the district is known for coffee cultivation along Highway 175, covering approximately 54 hectares and making Tainan the largest coffee-growing area in Taiwan.