Tianjin >> Taku Forts

Attraction Typ: Historic Site

Location: about 60 km from city

Recommend: 4 Star

Taku Forts

The Taku Forts is the best history testimony of Chinese bravely resisting the aggressors without fears and it is also an important gateway to protect Tianjin.

The Taku Forts (Chinese: 大沽炮台; pinyin: Dàgǔ Pàotái) is the best history testimony of Chinese bravely resisting the aggressors without fears. It is also an important gateway to protect Tianjin. Located by the Hai River estuary in Tanggu District of Tianjin municipality, they are 60 kilometers southeast from Tianjin.

The firs fort was built during the reign of the Ming Emperor, Jiajing, in order to protect Tianjin from foreign invasions. During the Opium Wars, it was expanded and five big forts and 20 smaller ones were built. Most of them were dismantled when the Eight-Nation Alliance Forces invaded China during the Boxer rebellion (1899-1901).

Two forts remain today, one on the southern bank and the other on the northern bank of the Hai River. Taku Fort (on the southern bank) was repaired in 1988 and opened to the public in June 1997. An exhibition in Chinese recounts the history of the Opium Wars and the forts' role in them. Unrestored forts are visible to its north from Haifang Road.

In 1988, the Taku Forts was listed as the National Cultural relic. While in 1990, it is noted as one of the ten famous attractions of Tianjin and became the Tianjin Patriotic Education Base.