Civic groups and residents in New Taipei are calling on authorities to grant official cultural heritage status for the city's bygone canal system. The network of canals and ditches date back nearly three centuries and once crisscrossed the Taipei Basin. Now, the remaining waterways are mostly underground.
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00:00New Taipei residents are fighting to protect one of the few remaining visible and exposed sites of the city's bygone
00:06Irrigation and canal system also known as Liu Guanzun. They want the municipal government to grant cultural heritage status
00:22A rally held today organized by local civic groups falls on the same day as a scheduled government inspection of the site
00:28To determine cultural landscape status, which is given to historically significant man-made environments without this government appointed status
00:37It leaves the remainder of Liu Guanzun and some of its surrounding historic buildings and houses
00:42Vulnerable to demolition something that demonstrators here say would jeopardize the neighborhood's unique character
00:58Liu Guanzun once boasted a vast network of criss-crossing transportation canals and irrigation ditches
01:09They were mostly built in the mid 18th century during Qing rule in Taiwan
01:13But that changed in the 20th century, especially in the 1970s when many of these canals and ditches were filled in for roads
01:22Demonstrators want the city government to provide concrete protections for Liu Guanzun
01:26Their ultimate goal is to ensure modernization doesn't just steamroll over the city's unique history and cultural heritage
01:34Kamishirin Wesley Lewis in New Taipei for Taiwan Plus