Section 3 Changing into Post in Taiwan

In 11th year (1885) of Emperor Guangxu Period, the Qing Dynasty set up as Taiwan province. Liu Mingchuan was the first governor During his tenure of office, he set up railways, opened up navigation transportation and telegraph, took many measures in enforcing defense, developing economy and stabilizing social order.

Liu Mingchuan

Because there were no horses in Taiwan, horse in mainland couldn't cross the straits, there was only urgent delivery, no horse delivery. Later "Document Delivery" was set up in Tainan and Taibei. These old post facilities were low efficient and cost a lot. With reference to customs post, Liu Mingchuan changed the system, set up General Post Administration Bureau of Taiwan and posted official notices to open up post business in I4th year of Emperor Guangxu Period (1888). He issued post regulations that official documents as well as private mails 7 could be delivered. There were two kinds of stamps issued by Taiwan post, one was used free for government, with "Taiwan Stamp " on it, the another was sold to civilians with "Post Stamp" on it. Both were marked with weight and date to be filled when delivery. The scale of Taiwan post was enormous. Besides the general bureau, post branches (also called "Head offices") were set up in Taibei and Tainan, which were complete post organizations for selling stamps, receiving, sending and delivering mails. For the main lines of postal route, the route from Taibei southwards was called South Route, 450 kin long, the route from Taibei northwards was called "North Route", 135 km long. There were several branches. Mails between Taiwan and mainland were received and sent by the Head Offices. Station set up along the mainlines of South Route and North Route was called Main Station, which was the transferring station selling stamps, sending and receiving mails. There was intermediate station between two main stations with long intervals, whose function was transferring mails. Station set up along the branch routes was called Side Station which sold stamps, sent and delivered mails, cooperated with Main Stations to form the service network in that area. There were total 52 Main Stations, Intermediate Stations and Side Stations. Post charges were according to the weight of the mails and the distance of the destinations which were calculated in the unit of "station" while the calculation units of weight were different according to the distance of the destinations. There were clear regulations on delivering and arriving time. Mails were delivered by soldiers, who were paid by post offices. Mails sent to mainland were delivered by cooperating with customs offices in Shanghai, Fuzhou, Xiamen, by two specified post ships, "Nandao" and "Feijie", at fixed intervals.

After the set up of Taiwan Post, all disadvantages of old post were eliminated. The amount of post personnel decreased by 2-thirds. Post revenue reached 10,000 Liang per year. In Dec. of 15th year of Emperor Guangxu, Liu Mingchuan reported to the Qing Government that since post was set up, no documents and mails were delayed, users thought it convenient. Its cost was about 10,000 Liang per year, which was 5-6 thousands Liang less than that of the old post.

Taiwan post was effective. However, because China was defeated in the war in 1894, Taiwan was ceded to Japan, which made this new-born thing died young.