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Many people know Keelung for its famous night market and seemingly constant rain, but there’s something else that makes it special. Its roads are strictly numbered to keep them organized, but they all skip the number eight. For example, between Ai 7th road and Ai 9th road is Liu Ming-chuan Road, while between Yi 7th Road and Yi 9th Road is Zhongxing Road. Even bus routes don’t include the number eight. Experts say there’s a historical reason why Keelung leaves it out.

All the road names on this bus route are numbered one through nine, but they skip the number eight.

Keelung resident
Noting lack of 8
Keelung has Ai Road one through seven, then it skips eight and goes straight to Ai 9th Road. We think it’s strange too. I’ve lived in Keelung for so long, but there is no Ai 8th Road.

Member of public
Noting lack of 8
There’s Ai 7th Road, then Liu Ming-chuan Road, then Ai 9th Road. Here there’s Yi 7th Road, Zhongxing Road, then Yi 9th Road.

The number eight seems to have disappeared from Keelung altogether. But on old maps, it’s still there.

Keelung got rid of the number eight when the Chinese Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949. Authorities were highly sensitive to any references to the Chinese Communist Party’s Eighth Route Army and required Keelung not to have any streets named eight. Therefore, Ai 8th Road and Yi 8th Road were changed to Liu Chuan-ming Road and Zhongxing Road.

Tan Yan-po
Historian
The Keelung City Council didn’t have any particular discussions about changing the road names in 1950. But there was a record showing that the sign for Ai 8th Road had been changed while others had not, urging the civil affairs department at the time to change them as soon as possible.

While there are no clear records of when exactly the names changed, the erasure of the number eight in Keelung is testament to how intense cross-strait tensions were back then.

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