Qualla: Anping Tree House https://qualla.com/anping-tree-house en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/anping-tree-house-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Anping Tree House https://qualla.com/anping-tree-house Anping Tree House: Introduction https://qualla.com/anping-tree-house/ Photo credit Rybloo, CC BY-SA 3.0. Nobody planned the Anping Tree House. A banyan tree did the designing, one root at a time, over decades of neglect. What started as a warehouse built by the British trading firm Tait & Company in 1867 is now a building consumed by a living organism -- roots snaking through walls, branches punching through the roof, the entire structure wrapped in a wooden embrace that no architect could have conceived. The warehouse was abandoned; the tree was patient. By the time the Tainan City Government decided to do something about it in 2004, there was no separating the two. So they built staircases and viewing platforms instead, and invited people to come see what happens when a building and a tree negotiate for the same space over a century and a half.

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Image: Rybloo | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/anping-tree-house-wp/wsj6-anping-tree-house-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Anping Tree House: Sugar, Camphor, and Treaty Ports https://qualla.com/anping-tree-house/ Photo credit 王彥翔, CC BY-SA 3.0. The warehouse exists because of the Treaty of Tientsin, signed in June 1858, which forced the Qing dynasty to open several Taiwanese harbors to international trade. Anping was one of them. The British trading company Tait & Company arrived and by 1867 had constructed both a merch...

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Image: 王彥翔 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/anping-tree-house-wp/wsj6-anping-tree-house-sugar-camphor-and-treaty-ports.mp3 0:06 2 full Anping Tree House: The Tree Takes Over https://qualla.com/anping-tree-house/ Photo credit Pbdragonwang, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Empire of Japan took control of Taiwan in 1895, it turned the trading of camphor and opium into government monopolies, pushing foreign merchants like Tait & Company out of the market and off the island. By 1911, the merchant house and warehouse had been converted into of...

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Image: Pbdragonwang | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/anping-tree-house-wp/wsj6-anping-tree-house-the-tree-takes-over.mp3 0:06 3 full Anping Tree House: Salt Works to Skyway https://qualla.com/anping-tree-house/ Photo credit Taiwania Justo, CC BY-SA 4.0. After Taiwan's handover from Japan to the Republic of China in 1945, the warehouse was repurposed as an office for the Tainan Salt Works. A renovation in 1981 modernized the building, but time and the tree continued their work. When the Tainan City Government finally addressed th...

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Image: Taiwania Justo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/anping-tree-house-wp/wsj6-anping-tree-house-salt-works-to-skyway.mp3 0:06 4 full