Anping Old Street (Yanping Street)

The Dutch laid out streets beside Fort Zeelandia in the 17th century, and Yanping Street is counted as the first merchant street in Tainan. It was built narrow, for people on foot and handcarts. In the mid-1990s a plan to widen it set residents and the city government, who wanted a wider road, against the central culture council, which wanted the whole street kept as a cultural district, and in spring 1995 several old buildings were pulled down during the dispute. Older houses survive in the lanes behind it, where the sword lion, Anping's protective emblem, still appears on walls.