Tainan Travel

Mrs. Xiao’s Chastity Archway is located in an alley behind Kuo General Hospital. It has a long history. Over the years, its surrounds have changed much, and it’s now surrounded by houses, creating the strange site of historic site and residences close together. The archway is a two column, two level archway, a type rare in Taiwan, and is the smallest type of stone archway. On it, the characters jie xiao (chastity) are carved. It was built in praise of the loyalty and chastity of Mrs. Xiao; at the time, any woman who was widowed before the age of 30 and did not marry by 50 years of age was qualified to have a stone archway built in her honor. 30 teals of silver were awarded by the local government, and the woman or her family would then build the archway in their home town. This chastity archway is the only one remaining in Tainan.