page_title: Fort San Domingo
section_title: Qing era
hierarchical_section_title: Fort San Domingo / History / Qing era
caption_attribution_description: English: The consular residence built by the British. The interior has been carefully restored by the Taiwanese.
context_page_description: Fort San Domingo is an historic fortress in Tamsui District, New Taipei, Taiwan. It was originally a wooden fort built in 1628 by the Spanish Empire, who named it "Fort San Domingo". However the fort was then destroyed by the Spanish themselves, after losing the Second Battle of San Salvador to the Dutch Empire in 1642. After the battle, in 1644, The Dutch rebuilt a fort in the original site, and renamed it "Fort Antonio". Since the Dutch were called "Red Haired People" by the Han immigrants during the time, the fort was then nicknamed "Fort Red Hair"..
  In 1724, the Qing Government repaired the fort, and built a perimeter wall with four gates. From 1868 onwards the fort was leased to the British government as its consulate, and a new two-storey building was built nearby as the consul's residence. The fort continued to be used as a British consulate during Japanese rule, but was briefly closed during the Pacific War.
  After the war, it was returned to British control. The site was used as an unofficial British embassy until 1972, though official diplomatic relations between Republic of China and the United Kingdom were terminated in 1950.
context_section_description: From 1683 to 1867 the Qing Dynasty Chinese government controlled the fort and during this time (1724) built a stone wall with four gates around it, of which only one, the main gate, survives.
   
  Following the Second Opium War, in 1868 the British took over the fort, made it their trade consulate, and painted it red (it was previously white). The fort was struck during the 1884 French bombardment of the Battle of Tamsui but suffered no damage. The linguist Herbert Allen Giles resided in the fort from 1885 to 1888 and completed some of his work on the Wade-Giles system of romanization of Standard Chinese there. Next to the fort the British built their consular residence in 1891.
  The Fort is adjacent to Aletheia University, which traces its origins back to 1872 when the Reverend Dr. George Leslie Mackay, a Canadian Presbyterian, established a mission and then a medical service and a school.
caption: The former British consular residence next to the fort.
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