Pingtung City

Pingtung City (屏東市) is the administrative capital of Pingtung County, originally the territory of the Makatao Akauw community from which the former name Ahou (阿猴) derives. The Ahou City Gate (阿猴城東門), built in 1836 to defend against bandits and feuding communities, is the last surviving section of the Qing dynasty era city walls. The city’s modern development was shaped by the Pingtung Sugar Factory (屏東糖廠), established in 1907, and the Lower Tamsui River Iron Bridge (下淡水溪鐵橋), a national monument that was once among the longest bridges in East Asia. A Japanese military airfield established in the 1920s made Pingtung a major air force base, and after the war approximately twenty military dependents’ villages were built to house personnel, of which Shengli New Village (勝利新村) has been restored.