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Today, Songshan Station is one of the important transportation hubs in the Greater Taipei area, with large numbers of commuters transferring here during peak hours. In fact, Songshan Station has been a crucial transportation junction for two to three hundred years, serving as a gateway between the past and present.

To understand why Songshan became a transportation hub, we must start with the ancient place name “Xikou”, which is difficult to understand literally. Originally, the Basay tribe’s Malysyakkaw village was translated by Quanzhou immigrants into Chinese as “Mao Li Xikou Community”, later shortened to “Xikou”. The original meaning of Malysyakkaw is “the bend of the river” . 

At that time, a bustling ferry crossing operated here for trade, second only to the renowned Wanhua. Naturally, when Qing dynasty Governor-General of Taiwan Liu Ming-chuan planned railway routes in Taiwan, he decided to build a station here.

During the Japanese colonial period, the station underwent several expansions. With changes in transportation and industry, river transport ceased to be Taiwan’s main mode of transportation, which led to the decline of the ferry crossing. It wasn’t until recent years, with government-led redevelopment and the creation of surrounding riverside trails, that it became another popular recreational spot for Taipei residents.