Red Hair Soil 紅毛土 was a Dutch concoction for concrete in Taiwan

Taiwanese called 'concrete' as An-Mun-Tou. I called it a lot when I was a child and have not given it a second thought that 'An-Mun-Tou' was actually the 'Red-Hair-Soil' 紅毛土, the Dutch concoction of the concrete. A few month ago, I had mentioned that Taiwanese called the Dutch, the Red-Hair. The Dutch occupied Taiwan from 1624 to 1662 for 38 years. They built the fort Zeelandin (It is called the Anping Fort today.) The word 'Zeelandin' consists of 'Zee' which means 'the sea' and 'land' which means the same meaning of the English word, 'land'. In 1662, the Koxingya drove the Dutch out of Taiwan. This Dutch group then colonized an island closed to today's Australia and then called the new place as 'New Zeeland'.

What is the Red-Hair-Soil 紅毛土 made of? Believe it or not, they are made of sweet rice, sugar, and ashes of burned oyster shells. Those ashes are actually CaCO3, or calcium carbonate. So while the concrete has the sugar component, they actually repeled ants very well. I have seen the left-over the castle that was originally built by the Dutch. The concrete actually worked and has endured several hundred years.

Photo shows the remain of the Zeelandin fort that was built by the Dutch using bricks and the 'Red-Hair-Soil' 紅毛土.