Construction of Sheliao Island Batteries — Keelung Fortress (Russo-Japanese War Preparations)

Sheliao Island (now Heping Island, Keelung) commands the eastern side of the entrance to Keelung Harbor and had been fortified since Spanish and Dutch times. Under the late-Qing coastal defence programme of Liu Mingchuan, a modern battery with five fan-shaped gun positions, designed by a German engineer, was completed there in 1891. After Japan took Taiwan in 1895, Keelung became the main port linking the colony with the home islands, and the Army set about turning it into a modern fortress.

Following the 1899 'Keelung Fortress Permanent Defense Plan' (基隆要塞防禦永久要領書), the Taiwan Governor-General's Fortification Bureau initiated construction of 15 permanent coastal and landward batteries to defend Keelung Harbor (Chinese Wikipedia also records two temporary batteries in the plan). The Sheliao Island battery was among the first phase, built in anticipation of a war with Russia, with construction beginning in May 1901 and completion in September 1903. It replaced the earlier Qing-era fortifications with modern Japanese-designed coastal defense works whose gun positions were built into the hillside and concealed by the terrain. The main armament was 27 cm cannon — described in the record cited by Chinese Wikipedia as '加式' (Canet-type) 30-calibre 27 cm guns — whose installation was finished in 1904. The Keelung Fortress Command was formally established in May 1903 to oversee all batteries in the system, and between 1900 and 1905 ten batteries and forts, including Baimiweng, Dawulun, Gangziliao, Mushan and Sheliao Island, were completed.

By the time the Russo-Japanese War broke out in February 1904, the Keelung defenses were substantially complete, though the war was fought primarily in Manchuria and Korean waters rather than around Taiwan, and the fortress saw no action. Around 1912 the guns on Sheliao Island were changed and a new battery of 9 cm quick-firing guns was added to deal with small craft close inshore, producing the arrangement now known as the East and West batteries.

After the war the batteries were taken over by Republic of China forces, which stationed a searchlight unit there for night watch. The Sheliao East Battery was listed as a historic building in 2004 and later designated a Keelung municipal monument; it has been restored and opened to visitors, with its gun positions and stone barrack remains. The West Battery lies inside a restricted military area and is not open to the public.