Page 17 - 臺北心綠動封面封底封側封折(無出血)_Float

The Birth of Park 1

Post-War Turmoil, the Shift of Parks’ Purpose

In 1949, the situation in the mainland was reversed. A large number of refugees entered
Taipei. Taipei City gradually became the capital of Taiwan, attracting a large number of rural
populations to move in. The complete and ideal urban scenic park system blueprint planned
by Japanese was left behind. A large number of reserved parks were temporarily used as
government offices, schools, housing complex for the families of soldiers and the needs of
troops.

In the early days of The Recovery, there was a lot of abandonment. Out of the fear of war and
the strong political and economic pressures, the government focused more on rebuilding the
under-constructed infrastructures and had to commit to economic development. Therefore,
less effort was taken into account of public facilities. The development of park and green space
remained with the planning structure from the Japanese occupation period. The reserved parks
sites had to serve urbanization needs instead. The new purposes include the beautification of
the city, anti-air-raid shelters and disaster prevention.

Green Space Buried Under the Cement Jungle in the City

After the Second World War in the 1930s, among the original 17 parks planned by the
Japanese government, the 16th Park (Located in Minsheng East Road, Songshan District, for
the Japanese military secondary airport and site of military electrical track) and the 17th Park
(Located in Zhongshan District, on the west side of Martyr's Shrine), have been abolished.
Some undeveloped urban parks have been replaced by buildings or facilities, such as the 7th
Park (now Daan Forest Park) and the 8th Park (now the surroundings of Hakka Culture
park, close to Suiyuan Road, Tingchou Road and Roosevelt Road), 14th and 15th Parks (now
Recreation Park and Linsen Park), were occupied by villages of soldiers’ families, military
units and markets due to excessive population movements, military needs, etc... The 10th park
(now Botanical Garden) was used as administrative agencies offices. Most of the blueprints
of the parks and green spaces that had been planned during the Japanese occupation period,
after 1949, became residential zone for the soldiers’ families of the troops that retreated from
mainland China to Taiwan with the R.O.C. government, or large population moved in to city
from countryside. All of these facts also caused problems such as expropriation, compensation,
resettlement, conflict, resistance, and fairness, when later on the government tried to develop
planned parks.

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