Sanxia Changfu Temple

In 1767, the 32nd year of the Qianlong reign, migrants from Anxi in Quanzhou living around Sanxia, Yingge, Shulin, and Daxi proposed building a temple. Two years later, in 1769, it was finished, dedicated to Qingshui Zushi from their home region. The area was then called Sanjiaoyong, the place where the Dahan River, Sanxia River, and Heng River meet, and Changfu Temple stood at the center of the settlement where those waterways crossed, the heart of the community's faith. It was repaired in 1833 after the Yilan earthquake, burned by Japanese troops in 1895 during the Yiwei War, and rebuilt in 1899. What truly transformed it came in the twentieth century. In 1947, the Sanxia-born painter Li Mei-shu took on the rebuilding. He refused to rush, insisting that every carving be worthy of the temple, and the work went on for decades. The layered stonework you see today is what that slow, careful craft left behind.