Luermen Tianhou Temple

Koxinga's fleet sailed into the Taijiang lagoon through the Luermen channel in 1661 on its way to drive out the Dutch, and temple tradition holds that a shrine to Matsu was set up near the landing in thanks for a rising tide. Qing officials paid to enlarge a Matsu temple at Luermen in 1719. Floods silted up the lagoon after 1823, and in 1871 a flood destroyed the temple; the statues were saved and kept in homes and at Tainan's Shuixian Temple. Local people rebuilt it in 1946 and 1947, and the present large complex grew from a rebuilding begun in 1977. This temple and the Orthodox Luermen Shengmu Temple (正統鹿耳門聖母廟) in Tucheng both claim descent from the Qing-era Luermen temple.