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In the Cing dynasty, Kaohsiung City was only a small fishing port. The more prosperous areas were the Old Town (today’s Zuoying) and the New Town (today’s Fengshan) of Fengshan County. These two areas once upon a time had ‘King of Three Mountains’ (san shang guo wang) temples which are Hakka people’s religious centers. From these temples, it can be observed that Hakka people made a contribution to the development of these two areas. In addition, in today’s Yancheng and Youchang areas, there are also similar temples. So, in the Cing dynasty, although Kaohsiung was the main gathering area for Hakka people, Hakka’s ancestors were present in the developing history of Taiwan.
In terms of Kaohsiung City’s Hakka ethnicity, its ‘original inhabitant areas’ are mainly Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli; Dongshih of middle Taiwan; and Meinong and Pingtung in southern Taiwan. Their Hakka people are called ‘northern Hakka,’ ‘middle Hakka,’ and ‘southern Hakka’ respectively. The period of their earliest immigration to Kaohsiung was around the early period of the Japanese occupation and these Hakka people were northern ones. Then, middle Hakka people moved in during the middle period of the Japanese occupation. Finally, the southern Hakka moved to Kaohsiung City during the later period of Japanese occupation and also after the Second World War.
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