Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫), in Guantian in the north of Tainan, is the heart of the Chianan Canal (嘉南大圳), the irrigation system that turned the Chianan Plain into farmland. It was designed by the Japanese engineer Hatta Yoichi (八田與一) and built from 1920 to 1930, and the restored Japanese-style houses where he and his family lived are now the Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park (八田與一紀念園區) on the north shore. Come for a calm green lake, a piece of history that people in Tainan still talk about with real warmth, and an easy bike ride along the water. It makes a gentle half day or full day out of the city.
Plan it right
- Entry: NT$100 for a full ticket, cash only at the main gate. It covers the memorial park.
- Hours: the scenic area is open 08:00 to 17:30 every day. The memorial park is open 09:00 to 17:00 and closed on Wednesdays, so don't come on a Wednesday.
- Get there: train to Longtian Station (隆田), then the weekend tourist shuttle, a city bus or a taxi. A car or scooter is easiest.
- Pair it with: the Dongshan coffee road, which runs down toward the reservoir. → Dongshan coffee
Hatta Yoichi and the Chianan Canal
Hatta came to Taiwan in his twenties, fresh from studying civil engineering at the University of Tokyo. He stayed 32 years, and all eight of his children were born here. In 1918 he put the plan for the reservoir and the canal to the colonial government. Work started in 1920 and finished in 1930, and when it was done, the Chianan Canal was the third-largest water project in the world and the largest in Asia.
The scale is still impressive. His team built a dam 1,273 meters long across the Guantian River and spent seven years digging a 3,078-meter tunnel through the hills to bring in more water. The canals reach farms across Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan, about 150,000 hectares of land that had been hard to farm before. The reservoir holds more than 70 million tonnes of water, and today it also helps supply Taiwan's chip industry.
Hatta died in 1942. He had been called back to Japan and was sailing to the Philippines for another project when his ship was sunk by an American submarine. He is remembered here as one of Tainan's own: a former president issued a commendation honoring him, and the road in front of the park is named Bade Road (八田路) after him.
The memorial park
On the north side of the lake, the engineers' houses were restored over about two years and opened as a memorial park on 8 May 2011. To get the details right, the restorers studied buildings in Hatta's home prefecture of Ishikawa in Japan and used Japanese carpentry methods. The result feels like walking into a quiet family compound from the 1930s, with wooden houses set around gardens.
- Hours: 09:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:30, closed Wednesdays. Hatta's own house is open 09:00 to 16:30 and stays closed when it rains. The animation hall is open 09:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 16:30.
- Also see: the Hatta Memorial Room (八田技師紀念室) above the reservoir's outlet, set up by the old Chianan Irrigation Association in 2000. It is open every day, 09:00 to 16:00.
Japanese visitors often leave flowers at Hatta's bronze statue by the reservoir. The cherry trees in the small park beside the statue flower pink each winter.
The 8 May memorial
Hatta died on 8 May, and a memorial is held at the reservoir on that day every year. In 2018 the Executive Yuan described it as organized together by the irrigation association, the Tainan City Government and Kanazawa, Hatta's hometown. On 8 May 2026, the 84th memorial, President Lai Ching-te laid flowers at the statue, with Hatta's grandson, the mayor of Kanazawa and more than 280 guests from Japan.
Around the lake
The reservoir is nicknamed Coral Lake for its branching shoreline. The scenic area has been run as a tourist area since 1969 and is managed today by the Irrigation Agency's Chianan office (農田水利署嘉南管理處). Beyond the memorial park there is a solar-powered sightseeing boat on the lake, the Love Stone with views over canal-fed fields, and camping and barbecue areas (a camping pitch is NT$500 and a barbecue spot NT$200, first come, first served, paid at the scenic area office). Fishing is not allowed, because the reservoir supplies drinking water, and drones are banned too.
Cycle the Hatta path
The Hatta path (八田自行車道) is about 6 km in Guantian and passes the memorial park, the scenic area, the Chianan Canal outlet viewpoint (嘉南大圳出水口景觀台) and Chishan Longhu Temple (赤山龍湖巖). For a longer ride, the Shanhaizhen Greenway (山海圳綠道, about 45 km) runs through Annan, Xinshi, Shanhua and Guantian. → Cycling in Tainan
Make it a reservoir-and-heritage day
The farming districts around Wushantou have more to see: a wetland park for jacanas, a temple with a walk-through hell inside a giant dragon, an old Japanese-era sugar company compound that is now an arts center, and a Dutch-style windmill by a pond. Their closing days don't line up, so read the route note below before you pick a date.
Guantian Jacana Ecological Education Park
Travel Tainan calls the Guantian Jacana Ecological Education Park (官田水雉生態教育園區) the finest bird-watching spot in Guantian. Bird lovers built it up over ten years, starting from two shipping containers on an unused strip of land, and the water chestnut fields and rice paddies around it feed the birds. In the breeding season the jacanas flutter over the water, call and dance, and once the chicks hatch, both parents feed them. You watch from a bird hide with square windows: bring binoculars and keep your voice down.
- Hours: 09:00 to 17:00, Tuesday to Sunday. Closed Monday.
Madou: a temple dragon and an old sugar company
Madou Daitian Temple (麻豆代天府) is a large temple to the Five Kings (五府千歲). Building began in 1956 and took about ten years. Its famous sight is the enormous dragon that stretches across the temple grounds. Built in 1979, about 76 meters long and 7 meters high, it holds the Eighteen Levels of Hell: you walk down past three guardian demons and murals of good and evil, through ten courts and 18 hells with the punishment for each sin spelled out, and come out into Heaven at the end. Travel Tainan likens the Heaven and Hell Crystal Palace (天堂地獄水晶宮) to an early Taiwanese haunted house, sound effects included, and the newest addition is a 35-meter slide. Some of the hell scenes are gory, so think about it with small children.
- Hours: 08:00 to 17:00 daily. Travel Tainan gives no price for the dragon, so check at the temple.
The Zongye Arts and Cultural Center (總爺藝文中心) is the old Zongye factory and head office of the Japanese-era Meiji Sugar company (明治製糖), which started work in January 1912. The mill closed in 1993. When the factory buildings were being pulled down in 1998, local historians and residents fought to save the rest, and in 1999 the county listed the red-brick office known as the Red Building (紅樓), the manager's residence, the guesthouse, the brick staff canteen, a Japanese garden and a group of century-old camphor trees as historic sites. It opened as an arts center on 4 November 2001, and many of the buildings now hold craft workshops.
- Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00. Closed Monday, Tuesday and Lunar New Year's Eve.
- Address: No. 5 Zongye, Nanshi Village, Madou District (麻豆區南勢里總爺5號).
Madou is also Tainan's pomelo town, and the harvest starts in late August. → Madou's pomelo season
Liuying: Deyuanpi Holland Village
Deyuanpi Holland Village (德元埤荷蘭村) in Liuying is a Dutch-themed scenic area by a pond: a red windmill, a pair of giant clogs on the grass, a white fence and the Van Gogh Suspension Bridge (梵谷吊橋). It is popular for camping, and an annual water sports event lets visitors learn to paddle a canoe. It is open 24 hours, with a visitor center, toilets and parking.
Nearby
- Linfengying Station (林鳳營車站): a white wooden station from 1933 among green rice paddies in Liujia, with a huge banyan in the road outside. Free and open all year. City bus Yellow 1 runs from here to the reservoir (see below).
- Shanhua Sugar Factory (善化糖廠): with Huwei in Yunlin, one of the only two sugar factories in Taiwan still making sugar. We don't have visiting details for it, so check before you go.
Getting there
- Train: Taiwan Railway to Longtian Station (隆田). Since July 2026 some Puyuma express trains stop there too.
- Tourist shuttle: the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Lingbo Guantian line (菱波官田線) runs on weekends and holidays only, twice a day each way. From Longtian Station it leaves at 11:49 and 15:09 and reaches the reservoir 17 minutes later. Back toward Longtian and Shanhua, it leaves the reservoir at 10:32 and 13:52. The cash fare from Longtian to the reservoir is NT$55. With so few buses, plan your way back before you go.
- City bus: the scenic area lists bus Orange 10 (橘10) from Longtian Station, Orange 4 (橘4) from the Shanhua bus station and Yellow 1 (黃1) from Linfengying Station. Check times on the Tainan city bus site.
- Taxi: from Longtian Station is the simple option on weekdays.
- Driving: National Freeway 3 to the Wushantou interchange. → Scooters and cars
Good to know
- Hours: scenic area 08:00 to 17:30, every day unless the city announces a closure. Memorial park 09:00 to 17:00, closed Wednesdays.
- Entry: NT$100 full ticket, NT$60 for Tainan residents and children from 6 through primary school, NT$40 for over 65s and children 4 to 5, free for under 4s and visitors with disabilities plus one companion. Cash only at the main gate; the scenic area says it sells no tickets online, so don't buy them anywhere else.
- Parking: NT$50 for a car, NT$20 for a scooter, valid for the day.
- Address: 500 Bade Road Section 3, Guantian District (官田區八田路三段500號).
How we'd run the day
Arrive mid-morning, avoiding Wednesday. Start at the memorial park while it is cool, then visit the statue and walk along the lake. After lunch, ride the Hatta path, or drive up into the Dongshan hills for coffee. If you like this kind of history, the old town has plenty more from the same era. → Japanese-era Tainan · Xinhua and Hutoupi
A suggested route
With a car and a full day, this order works: Madou Daitian Temple in the morning, then the Zongye Arts and Cultural Center, the jacana park, Wushantou and the memorial park in the afternoon, and Deyuanpi Holland Village last, since it never closes. Fit Linfengying Station in wherever it suits you.
- Pick the day: the jacana park closes on Monday, Zongye on Monday and Tuesday, and the Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park on Wednesday. Thursday to Sunday is the only time everything is open.
- Check the hours: the times for the jacana park, Daitian Temple and Deyuanpi come from Travel Tainan listings, which are not always up to date, so check before you set off.
- An honest note on getting around: these stops are spread over four districts, Madou, Guantian, Liuying and Liujia. Trains and buses reach some of them, but not in a way you can easily chain into one day, so for the full route you really want a car, a scooter or a driver. Without one, keep to Wushantou by train and bus, as above. → Scooters and cars
Want help planning it?
Wushantou is easy with wheels and fiddly without them. If you'd like a steer on timing or a driver for the day, we're happy to help. → Work with us
Sources
Ticket prices, opening hours, camping and barbecue fees and bus routes from the scenic area's own site (fees and hours, getting there, archived April 2026, as the site was offline when we checked). The reservoir and the Japanese visitors from Travel Tainan (Wushantou Reservoir, Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park). Hatta's life, the park's opening and the 150,000 hectares from the Office of the President. The 1918 plan, the 1920 to 1930 build, the memorial and Bade Road from the Executive Yuan. The dam and tunnel from the Taipei Times. The 2026 memorial and the water supply from UDN. The Hatta Memorial Room from the Ministry of Agriculture. Bike paths from the Tainan Transportation Bureau open data. The shuttle from the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle (route, timetable and fares) and the Puyuma stop from UDN. The jacana park, Daitian Temple, Deyuanpi and Linfengying Station from Travel Tainan (jacana park, Madou Daitian Temple, Deyuanpi Holland Village, Linfengying Station). Zongye from its own site (hours, history) and Travel Tainan. The hell inside the dragon from Taiwan News. The working sugar factories from PTS and the Liberty Times. Checked October 2026.