Play Tainan with the map
Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan, in the south of the island. Every dot on the map is a little game.
Two fingers to move and zoomPress + to zoom, drag to move
The 37 districts of Tainan, with its rivers, reservoirs, mountains and bridges. Every dot is a game. More dots are coming, and one day they will join up into trails.
Map data: National Land Surveying and Mapping Center (Taiwan), © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Theme · Five Canals
Long ago, when China’s Qing dynasty ruled Taiwan (1683–1895), the old walled city of Tainan had five little canals on its west side. People called them the Five Canals. Boats rowed in from the sea, carrying cloth, medicine, fir logs and sugar.
Tap a canal name to jump to its game.
Five Canals · Xingangqian (in Chinese)
Dig a new canal, carry night soil (poop used to feed the crops), follow a red light to Mazu Tower (a temple of Mazu, goddess of the sea), and pass through Duiyue Gate, an old city gate you can still walk through.
Five Canals · Fotou (in Chinese)
A small boat brings fir logs from Fuzhou in China into Fotou Canal. Row like a dragon boat team, share the work fairly, and help the timber shop get the logs to the right places.
Five Canals · Nanshi (in Chinese)
A big sailing ship is here! Move the cloth and medicine onto small boats and row all the way to Shuixian Temple (the temple of the water gods).
Five Canals · Nanhe (in Chinese)
A new official is arriving by boat! Blow the boat to shore, lead him through the stone welcome gate, learn about Tainan’s coming-of-age party at 16, and fetch water at the Great Well.
Five Canals · Anhai (in Chinese)
Load bags of sugar onto the boat, connect three little canals, toss the moon blocks (two wooden blocks people use to ask the gods a question), dodge the sandbars, and deliver it all to Anping.
Theme · History
Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan, and it has historic sites everywhere. About 400 years ago, the Dutch built Fort Zeelandia on a sandbar in Anping. Today it is called Anping Old Fort. That was around the time the Pilgrims sailed to America on the Mayflower. You can visit historic sites any time of year.
History · Anping Old Fort (in Chinese)
Join a volunteer at the old fort and go back 400 years. Mark out Fort Zeelandia on the sandbar, catch the ingredients to mix mortar, push crates in the storehouse, watch soldiers carry bricks away to build the Eternal Golden Castle, let a banyan’s roots grow into the south wall, and help the sword lions (lion faces holding swords in their mouths, to keep bad luck away) find their doors.
Theme · Temples
The 9th day of the 9th month on the lunar calendar is the Double Ninth Festival. It is also the birthday of Prince Nezha, a god who looks like a boy. Xinying Taizi Temple is a very old and famous Nezha temple. Many Nezha temples around Taiwan began here, so on his birthday they all come back to visit, like going home to Mom’s house. At a temple, please speak softly and don’t disturb people who are praying.
Temples · Xinying Taizi Temple (in Chinese)
Join Grandma, who lives next to Taizi Temple, to wish Prince Nezha a happy birthday. Photograph the four magic weapons held by the statue on the roof, circle and pull the weeds in the carp pond, walk softly in the main hall, flip cards to learn about the old temple, count the bats on the big incense burner, and follow the god’s sedan chair back home.
Theme · Festivals
Tainan has busy festivals all year long. On the night of the Lantern Festival, Yanshui holds the beehive fireworks: huge racks of bottle rockets that all shoot off at once. The story goes that it began as a way to chase away a deadly sickness: people set off fireworks along the path of the sedan chair of the god Guan Gong and prayed to be safe. Beehive fireworks are very dangerous, so children must not go near them. In this game you will learn how to stay safe.
Festivals · Yanshui beehive fireworks (in Chinese)
Join Great-uncle, who lives in Yanshui. Hear the old story at Yanshui Wu Temple (Guan Gong’s temple), help Great-uncle put on his safety gear, measure a safe distance with a tape measure, draw a beehive design on paper, find the rocket racks with a safety check mark, and sweep up afterward. Beehive fireworks are very dangerous. Children must not go near them.
Theme · Fruit
Tainan has fruit all year round. These games start on the farm. Why does it grow here? How does it grow? What do farmers do all year? How do we eat it? In fall there are four: water caltrops from Guantian (water from Wushantou Reservoir; rice fields in spring, caltrop ponds in fall), avocados from Danei (grown by the Zengwen River; they never get soft on the tree), big pomelos from Madou (Madou used to be a harbor town; picked around Shuangjiang, “frost’s descent,” in late October) and coffee from Dongshan (grown on Mt. Kantou; the coffee cherries turn red in fall, and there is a coffee festival in October). In winter there are two: strawberries from Shanhua (Taiwan’s southernmost strawberry farms, late November to April) and plums from Meiling, Nanxi (plum blossoms in winter, plums in spring).
Fruit · Guantian water caltrop (in Chinese)
Join Grandma, who grows water caltrops in Guantian, from June to October. Zoom in to see water from Wushantou Reservoir flow into the fields, lift the leaves to find water caltrops (a horned nut that grows under water), help a jacana dad keep his chicks out of the rain, then press the horns and sort the nuts in water into hard and tender ones.
Fruit · Danei avocado (in Chinese)
Join an uncle who grows avocados in Danei, from January to October. Graft on a tasty kind, draw paths for the bees to carry pollen, pick off extra baby fruit, dig to see the shallow roots, snip ripe avocados off the stem, and find the place where avocados get soft.
Fruit · Madou big pomelo (in Chinese)
Join an aunt who grows pomelos in Madou, from winter to fall. Prune branches with shears, follow the smell to find pomelo flowers, cover the fruit with paper bags, keep the soil from getting too wet or too dry, pick the fruit at Shuangjiang by holding it and cutting twice, and peel the thick skin.
Fruit · Dongshan coffee (in Chinese)
Join a young farmer who grows coffee in Dongshan. Piece together the first coffee tree on Mt. Kantou, push the leaves aside to pick only red coffee cherries, twist one open to find two seeds, dry the cherries in the sun, shake a net to roast the beans, and drive up Route 175 to the coffee festival.
Fruit · Shanhua strawberry (in Chinese)
Join an aunt who grows strawberries in Shanhua. In summer, root the baby plants from the runners in pots. In September, plant them on high beds and lay down straw. Pull off the petals to watch a strawberry grow, snap ripe ones upward to pick them, pack them in boxes, and find “Dahu in the north, Shanhua in the south” on a map of Taiwan.
Fruit · Meiling plum (in Chinese)
Join an uncle who grows plums in Meiling. Change the “Banana Mountain” sign to Meiling (Plum Ridge), bring in cold air to open the blossoms all over the hill, hold an umbrella over the flowers, gently pick green plums without breaking branches, make crunchy pickled plums and jam, and cook a pot of plum chicken soup.
Fruit · Dongshan ponkan (in Chinese)
Join an uncle who grows ponkan mandarins in Dongshan. Prop up branches with bamboo poles before a typhoon, move the sun to see that green ponkans are ripe even while their skin is green, sort them by size on a tilting board, turn them over to find bad ones, weigh one catty (600 grams) at a fruit stand, and share the segments with everyone.
Theme · Rice
Tainan is warm, so farmers can grow rice twice a year. The rice cut in fall is the second crop. In October the heads of rice turn gold and bow down, and in mid-November it is harvest time. These games start in Jingliao, Houbi: look at the rice, cut it, dry it and polish it, and see how many steps it takes to make one grain of rice.
Rice · Jingliao, Houbi (in Chinese)
Join Grandpa, a rice farmer in Jingliao, from the old street to the fields. Dip white cloth into an indigo dye pot to learn where the name Jingliao comes from, lift the rice to find the fullest heads, drive a harvester across the whole field, beat the grain loose in a threshing tub, spread it flat in the drying yard, and rub it until it turns into white rice.
Theme · Fish farms
Tainan’s coast is covered with fish ponds. About half of all the milkfish in Taiwan are raised in Tainan. Milkfish hate the cold, so every August to December farmers rush to catch them before a cold snap comes. These games start in Xuejia: follow a milkfish from a tiny baby fish to a bowl of breakfast porridge.
Fish farms · Xuejia milkfish (in Chinese)
Join an uncle who raises milkfish in Xuejia. Scoop up baby fish from below, draw circles so the fish can eat the algae, pull the net from both sides to bring in the fish, herd small fish into a winter ditch when a cold snap comes, scrape off scales at the fish stall, and pick the bones out of your milkfish at breakfast.
Theme · Birds
Every fall, many birds fly down from the north to spend the winter in Tainan. Black-faced spoonbills go to the Zengwen River mouth in Qigu, and whiskered terns go to the Beimen Lagoon. More than half of all the black-faced spoonbills in the world spend the winter in Taiwan. In summer, little terns fly up from Australia to lay their eggs in the salt fields of Dingshan, Qigu.
Birds · Black-faced spoonbill (in Chinese)
Be a young guide at the bird-watching hut and keep the spoonbills company from fall to spring. Wait quietly for them to land, find a leg band with a telescope, turn the water gate to let water out, and wave goodbye as they fly back north.
Birds · Whiskered tern (in Chinese)
Go out with Grandpa on the Beimen Lagoon to keep a record of the “black-belly birds.” Spot the whiskered terns, watch them dip down for fish, spin a bird tornado with your finger, and steer the boat quietly home.
Birds · Little tern (in Chinese)
Be a young ranger at the Qigu salt fields in summer. Launch little terns with a slingshot so they island-hop from Australia, give the eggs camouflage, stack hollow bricks as rain shelters, and spin the 360° camera on the floating ark.
Theme · Hot springs
In the hills northeast of Tainan is Guanziling Hot Spring. Its water is a gray mud hot spring. When Japan ruled Taiwan, it was one of Taiwan’s four great hot springs. Nearby is the Water and Fire Cave, where fire burns right out of the water. In fall, when the weather cools down, there is a hot spring food festival.
Hot springs · Guanziling (in Chinese)
Join a cousin who grew up on Guanziling’s hot spring street. Take the water’s temperature at Baoquan Bridge, push hot water up through mudstone, see the fire at the Water and Fire Cave that rain can’t put out, climb the Brave Man’s Slope one foot at a time, mix a bath that is just right, and snap a night photo at the hot spring food festival.
Theme · Old trees
Tainan has 342 old trees that are listed and protected. Old trees can get sick, and typhoons can hurt them, so everyone helps look after them. Tainan Park in the North District opened in 1917 and has lots of 100-year-old trees. You can visit any time of year.
Old trees · Tainan Park (in Chinese)
Meet Tainan Park’s old trees with a tree doctor. Water the young trees in one line without lifting your finger, hold hands around a 100-year-old bodhi tree, guide birds back to their nests in the rain tree, find out who is singing in the orchid trees, tap trunks to find hollow spots, and tie ropes to hold up young trees after a typhoon.
Theme · Archaeology
When the Southern Taiwan Science Park was built, lots of things left by people 5,000 years ago came out of the ground: pots, rice, and Taiwan’s oldest dog. These treasures are now at the Nanke Archaeology Museum in Xinshi. You can visit any time of year.
Archaeology · Nanke Archaeology Museum
Dig down with a young archaeologist. Put the layers in order from oldest to newest, find Taiwan’s first dog on a grid, pick up 5,000-year-old charred rice with tweezers, pat a cord-marked pot, draw a whole pot from half, and slowly put the treasures in the display case.
This is a test version. After you play, please tell us what was fun, what was hard to understand, and where you got stuck. Each game starts from the beginning every time you open it. When you play at a temple, please be quiet and don’t disturb people who are praying. When you go bird-watching, stay quiet and don’t get too close.
This English version was rewritten from the Chinese original for English-speaking children and families. Games marked “(in Chinese)” are only in Chinese for now.