The Chinese general, Koxinga, whose formal name is Cheng Chen-kung (1624-1662) , sailed to Taiwan in 1661 on a junk. He is revered in Taiwan, as well as China, for taking back the island from the Dutch, who had ruled it for 38 years, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The replica - expected to be completed by the end of November - will be open to tours and will set sail on short-distance journeys in the region, in what some Taiwanese authorities hope will spark a new trend of historical tourism in Taiwan, especially at a time when there is an influx of Chinese tourists coming here.

"The vessel would ply the ancient sea routes on friendship missions to promote Taiwan and its cultural assets internationally, " said Tainan City Mayor Hsu Tian-tsair at a recent ceremony to mark the completion of the hull.

The ceremony was witnessed by Wang Zhigang, an official of the Hong Kong and Macau division of China's Ministry of Culture. Wang said he hopes Taiwan and China can conduct more exchanges after the ship begins sailing to China.

Over the last six years, Tainan has been hosting an annual festival to celebrate Koxinga's legacy in Taiwan and his close links to the southern city, where he ruled Taiwan from 1661-1662 before dying of malaria.

In February, the Tainan City government began constructing the wooden vessel at the city's Lin Mo-niang Park at Anping Harbor, based on a 1706 painting of one of the boats in Koxinga's fleet that is housed at a museum in Hirado, Japan's Nagasaki prefecture, where Koxinga was born.

Koxinga's father was a Chinese merchant and pirate and his mother was a Japanese woman.

Koxinga's fleet was called "Taoyuan boats" (Taiwan boats) by the Japanese, and "sailing junks" by Dutch colonists.

The Tainan-based Dragon Yacht Building Ltd. has been commissioned by the city government to build the replica to specifications of 29.5 meters in length, and 7.26 meters in width, with a displacement of 125 tons -- exactly the same as the boats in Koxinga's fleet.

The replica is designed to be powered by wind, and weighs around 150 tons. It will have the capacity to carry about 200 people and up to 36 cannons, Hsu said.

When the vessel is ready to be launched, a crew of 20 will be recruited to sail it first to Hirado, then to China and to Jakarta, Indonesia, Hsu said.

This will mean tracing an ancient marine trade route -- across the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, the Bashi Channel and the Strait of Malacca -- that was used at the time when Taiwan was ruled by Koxinga.

"The building of the replica aims to honor Koxinga's pioneering spirit and highlight the glorious days when the Ming Dynasty had the world's greatest navy," according to Hsu.

The ship's construction will be open to public view, Hsu added.

The vessel is similar to the Hong Kong-registered Princess Taiping, which was built by hand with traditional tools and was commissioned by Nelson Liu, a former Taiwanese businessman. It was powered only by cotton sails, but the Tainan boat will be more than twice the size of the ill-fated junk.

The Princess Taiping departed northern Taiwan on June 26 last year and sailed across the Pacific on a voyage aimed at proving that China's Ming Dynasty explorers could have reached America more than half a century before Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus did in 1492.

The Princess Taiping succeeded in reaching the United States, but the boat sank off northeastern Taiwan's fishing port of Suao after being hit by a freighter on April 26, a day away from completing its journey.

Mayor Hsu said the Tainan boat is being built more sturdily.

"It will be able to withstand gale force 8 winds and waves of up to six meters high," the mayor said.

The idea to build the boat came about five years ago when Tainan city officials obtained relevant archival information that had been documented by academics over the past 10 years, said Hsu Ken-hsiu, director of the city's Tourism and Cultural Affairs Bureau.

But the plan was put on hold until February this year when the Council for Cultural Affairs (CAA) agreed to contribute NT$80 million to the construction costs, the tourism chief said.

The feasibility study for the project was started two years ago and a special task force composed of historians and ship-building experts was later formed to the work on project.

In 2007, some members of the team traveled to Japan to obtain a copy of the 1706 painting and other invaluable archival information related to that type of vessel, Hsu said.

But the actual work of building the ship is something of a challenge, as it is difficult to find shipwrights with the required expertise, officials said.

"It is extremely difficult to build such a ship, " said Tseng Fan-han, deputy director of the Metal and Mechanical Division under the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) , who is familiar with the plan.

The youngest shipwrights with experience in building wooden boats are already in their 70s, Tseng said. Also, most manufacturers that supply wood and other building materials for ancient ships and provide equipment for wood storage and wood processing have suspended operations because of a lack of demand, Tseng added.

Although it is the Dragon Yacht Building company's first attempt at building a replica of an ancient ship, the company is likely to obtain similar orders internationally once the current project proves successful, because there is an increasing interest in building ancient ships worldwide, said Lu Chung-yung, director of the United Ship Design and Development Center in Taipei County, which is overseeing the construction.

His prediction reflects hopes that the Ming Dynasty boats and the history of the men who sailed them will help power tourism, particularly in Tainan City, where Koxinga's legacy is best remembered.

In 1644, when the Manchu forces took Beijing and established the Qing Dynasty, Koxinga, along with many Ming loyalists, escaped southwards and resisted the foreign invasion for over 20 years.

But in the end, his forces were no match for the Qing, which left him no option but to retreat to Taiwan.

In 1662, Koxinga established Taiwan's first formal Chinese government at Anping in Tainan and adopted a Chinese legal system and court, and instituted important cultural, artistic and commercial improvements and reforms, but he died less than a year after his arrival in Taiwan.

In Taiwan, Koxinga is regarded as a patriot because he was a Ming loyalist who used Taiwan as a base to launch counterattacks against the Qing Dynasty government.

For that reason, the Kuomintang (KMT) has frequently compared Koxinga to Taiwan's late President Chiang Kai-shek, who retreated to the island and established a government here in 1949 after he lost the civil war against the Communists in mainland China.

China also regards Koxinga as a national hero because he established Chinese rule over Taiwan and brought many Han Chinese to Taiwan. Because many Chinese people followed him to the island during this period, Chinese people became the majority residents of Taiwan.

At the same time, some Taiwan independence proponents portray him as one of the first settlers of Taiwan and a hero who sought to maintain Taiwan's independence from the Chinese government.

Whatever the narrative, the last chapter in Koxinga's history may not yet be written, as his name and the vessels on which he traveled continue to spell excitement in Taiwan.

Already, the ship being built in Tainan has drawn a lot of media attention, with its historic significance and archaic shipbuiding techniques. The National Geographic Channel Taiwan has been recording the ship's construction from the very beginning, including the signing of a contract for the shipbuilding, the laying of the keel, and the completion of the hull.