During the Japanese era many important cultural figures hailed from Tanshui: Tu Tsung-ming, the first Taiwanese to earn an MD (at Imperial Kyoto University), and the musician Chiang Wen-yeh are two illustrious examples.
提起淡水郡，可是個日據時代台灣人文薈萃的好地方，日本京都帝大出身的第一位台籍醫學博士杜聰明、音樂家江文也，就是最耀眼的兩位同鄉前輩。