HDR: Hsinchu City East Gate

Today, Yuling and I went to the Hsinchu City Glass Museum to check out a culinary festival.  There were a few photo opportunities there and while we didn’t eat enough (we stupidly had lunch before we went!) I did get a chance to check out a gate I alluded to at one point in the past in this blog, the Hsinchu City East Gate.

The gate was built when the Chinese began heavy colonization of Taiwan.  Hsinchu is actually one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, dating back about 400 years.  Before the Chinese took control of it, the city was a Taiwanese aboriginal settlement.  In 1827, it was completed by the Qing dynasty, though the Japanese colonizers later tore down much of the wall when they redesigned the road system.

I liked how this shot shows not only the gate, but the other things that have sprung up around the roundabout that surrounds the structure.  The advertisements and signs of an affluent 21st-century city contrast in an interesting way with the structure.