Old Big Well Pier, Historical well in West Central District, Tainan, Taiwan
Old Big Well Pier is a historic well site at the intersection of Minquan Road and Yongfu Road in central Tainan, Taiwan. Stone tablets and structural remains mark the original location where a large communal well once stood at street level.
The well was first established during the Dutch colonial period in the 17th century, when it served the harbor district as a key water source. It was formally designated as a municipal historic site toward the end of the 20th century.
The site is still known locally as Da Jing Tou, meaning 'big well head,' a name that has stayed in everyday use long after the well stopped functioning. Seeing the stone remnants today gives a sense of how central water collection once was to the social life of the neighborhood.
The site sits at a well-known street corner in central Tainan and is easy to reach on foot or by public transit. Informational panels on site are written in Chinese and partly in English, so some basic reading of the markers helps to follow the story.
Some of the stone tablets on site record the names of craftsmen and dates of past repairs, showing that the well was actively maintained across many generations. This kind of stone record-keeping is relatively rare in an urban setting in Taiwan.
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