How long ago was it that there was a custom in Shilin whereby infants, on reaching their first birthday, would be taken down and bathed in the Keelung River? "In The Story of the Danshui River, author Lin Mingyu evokes the days when the rivers were packed with fish, eels, shrimp, crabs, and mussels, and he traces the steady decline of production and eventual extinction of river life.
多少年前，在士林後港墘出生的嬰孩，滿周歲的時候，慣例被抱到基隆河畔洗禮一番… …《淡水河故事》記錄了淡水河從滿是魚、鰻、蝦、蟹、貝的漁產天堂到陸續減產、滅絕的歷史。