Shuilin

Shuǐlín (水林) is a rural township in southwestern Yunlin that styles itself the “First Township of Taiwan” (開台第一鄉) based on the tradition that pirate-merchant Yan Siqi (顏思齊) led the first organized Han Chinese settlement here in the early 1620s. He is venerated at Maqian Temple, built in recent decades in the village of Tucuo. Several heptagonal wells in the township, including the Chegang Well, are attributed to Dutch colonial construction methods. The sugar industry shaped the area during the Japanese colonial era. Ji Chang (紀長), dubbed the “Sugarcane King of Taiwan” (台灣蔗王), built an elaborate courtyard residence in 1921, and a branch of the Beigang Sugar Railway once passed through the township. Fanshucuo Shuntian Temple, a Mazu temple in the township’s south, claims a founding date of 1668.