Tamsui Yinshan Temple

In 1822, the 2nd year of the Daoguang reign, Hakka migrants from Tingzhou in western Fujian built Yinshan Temple in Tamsui. The brothers Luo Kebin and Luo Kerong of Yongding County donated the land, and Zhang Minggang raised the funds. These migrants were a relatively small group among Taiwan's settlers, different in language, homeland, and customs from the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou settlers around them, so from the very start the temple was more than a place of worship. Its two side wings served as the Tingzhou Guild Hall, a place for countrymen who had just crossed the strait and had nowhere yet to stay. The deity in the main hall, the newcomers in the wings: one building that made "protection" mean exactly what it says. In two hundred years its layout has barely changed, which is why it is a national historic site today.