Tainan Travel

Down an alley on Zigiang Street, there is a historic site, Wugui Well(烏鬼井)(Black Ghost Well). It is said that the well has always provided an abundant support of water. Dug in 1653, it still has water to this day. In early times, it was a water source for both passing ships and local residents. It is said that the well was dug by black slaves brought to Tainan by the Dutch East India Company in the 1600s. As people in Taiwan had never seen dark-skinned people before they were called wu gui (“black ghosts,”) and this was also the name given the well. In the Japanese Colonial Period, the number of people taking water from the well gradually decreased and there also frequent cases of people falling in accidentally, so the Japanese sealed the well and buried it. It was found and restored when archeological work was carried out in 1955. While downtown Tainan has a Wugui Well, Yongkang has a Wugui Bridge and Xinhua has a Wugui House. It is said that these names were given because these were places where black slaves were imprisoned or buried. There are not many historical records of black slaves in Tainan but these names show the scope of activity of black slaves in Tainan at the time and Tainan’s importance in international trade.