The Twatutia Wharf during the Height of Shipping on the Tamsui River

During the late Qing-early Republic period, the Tamsui River was at the peak of its shipping operations. Many river ports and towns sprung up as a result. One of these was Twatutia, which reached its maximum size around 1890 with the tea farms and foreign firms there. The wharf always had ships coming and going in large numbers. The covered sampan in the picture could travel upriver to the Daxi, Xindian, Shiding region, bringing common commodities to the towns and villages there, as well as transport tea leaves, citrus fruits, camphor, sugar, and coal from these inland areas to the Tamsui harbor and from there to Xiamen and the rest of the world.