History of Kaohsiung
The written history of Kaohsiung can be traced back to the early 17th century, though archeological studies have found signs of human activity in the region from as long as 7000 years ago.
The first Chinese records of the region were written in 1603 by Chen Di, a member of Ming admiral Shen You-rong's expedition to rid the waters around Taiwan and Penghu of wokou pirates.
Most of the discovered remnants were located in the hills surrounding Kaohsiung Harbor, and include artifacts found at 壽山遺址, Longquan Temple ruins, 桃子園遺址、左營舊城遺址、左營遺址、後勁遺址、覆鼎金遺址、Fengbitou.
Prehistoric artifacts discovered have suggested that the ancient Kaohsiung Harbor was originally a lagoon, with early civilizations functioning primarily as hunter-gatherer societies.
Artifacts discovered have included various types of ceramics and pottery believed to be of Chinese origin dating to the early Qing dynasty, about 400 years ago.
The civilization is believed to have persisted for a very long period (2000–6000 years ago), with archeological digs finding artifacts buried in multiple layers.
The site has three major layers: Taochiyuan (桃子園) shell mound is located in the northwestern part of the North Chaishan (北柴山).
It was during the 1603 campaign that Chen Di penned the first records referring to a Takou Isle in his book "Eastern Barbarian Lands" (東蕃記), which also contained the first descriptions of the early residents of Taiwan.
One of the most famous folk characters of the pre-Dutch Takau region was the pirate Lin Daoqian (林道乾), reputed to have been active in robbing ships of their treasure during the reign of the Ming Jiajing Emperor (1522–1566).
Folklore holds that while anchored at Takau in 1563, Lin placed his treasure into eighteen and a half bamboo baskets, hiding them in the surrounding hills.
During this time, Lin was told by a feng shui master named Wu Ban-hsien (吳半仙) that if he were to bury his deceased father in a "dragon cave" near modern-day Jiali, leave an offering of an arrow upon the altar , and sleep while holding one hundred grains of white rice in his mouth for one hundred days, before firing three arrows towards the imperial capital in the northwest on the dawn of the last day, he would be able to conquer all the lands under heaven.
Upon capturing the divine rooster, Lin handed it to his sister Jin-lien (金蓮) to care for, while he prepared to fire the arrows towards the imperial capital at the crack of dawn on the one hundredth day.
Upon hearing the rooster calling, Lin awoke and mistakenly thought that dawn had arrived, immediately firing off three divine arrows with his name towards the imperial capital in the northwest.
With imperial troops closing in, Lin attempted to flee, but was delayed by his sister who refused to leave without their eighteen and a half baskets of treasure.
