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TAIPEI AIR STATION |
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Here, Brian stands with a waiting train of passengers and freight near Hsinchu. Ca 1957-1958. |
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Here is an interurban passenger train, location is unknown. Ca. March 1959. The unit on the left seems to be a Japanese built gas-electric locomotive. |
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This Ca. 1958-1959 photo is Hsinchu’s Railroad Station that was built by the Japanese in 1913. This era was still the age of steam locomotion in Taiwan, and the Hsinchu rail yard is behind the station. The building walls are dingy with what probably are soot deposits. Based on the time on the tower clock, the compass orientation of the building, and direction of shadows, the photo must have been taken in October or November. Looks like tangerines are being sold outside the entrance. Out of frame on the right side is a bus station. Four hard-to-see Chinese characters under the main flag translate as “Hsin Chu Railroad Station.” The red and gold banner on the pillar left of the entrance says “Promote Revolution Spirit,” the one on the other pillar says “Implement Founding Father’s Will,” which must be referring to Dr. Sun Yat-sen whose birthday is in November. (Translation courtesy of Gary Chen.) |
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PHOTO CORTESY JUJU WANG The station in 2006, looking much cleaner now, is still used for conventional passenger rail traffic.
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The railway station is located at/within the magenta circle.
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The parents of a friend, Frank Niu, lived in Hsinchu in the 1950s. He talked to his mother about this picture and passes this on to us: “Washing clothes would be a daily activity for her family, mainly due to the lack of clothes for each family member. A coffee colored soap would be used by her mom [Frank’s grandmother] to wash the clothes on a wooden wash board in a gully right next to the house. In [this] photo, people would also use smooth rounded river rocks in place of wash boards. A medium sized basket was also used to carry the clothes between the house and the gully. During the 1950s, gullies are still very clean and it was clear enough to see to the bottom and this applies all year round due to the gully being fed by the local mountain streams. On average, washing clothes would take an hour in the morning and then the clothes would be dried on bamboo poles for the rest of the day. Washing clothes was not much of a social event, if you ran into others washing at the same time then there would be chit chat, but for the most part, each family had their own schedule. The location of where each family would wash their clothes was mostly determined by their access and convenience to clean streams and gullies. The photo presents a very typical scene of women washing their clothes which was a recurring and familiar sight during this time period.” |