A plain white university gate can be found at one of University Road’s intersections. It was built in 1956 to commemorate the upgrade of the school from Taiwan Provincial College of Engineering to Taiwan Provincial Cheng Kung University. Nowadays, people are often curious about why there is a gate at this location. Back in 1956, the school only had two campuses, Cheng-Kung and Sheng-Li. As this location was the terminus of the central axis connecting the university and the train station, it became the site of the university gate.

The commemorative gate was designed by Professor He Chen-tse from the Architecture Department. It is a simple and plain white archway placed upon a pair of simplified black xumi pedestals. The gate-shaped frame represents the rationality and certainty found in engineering and science. The gate’s overall height to width ratio is 1:1.25, and the ratio of the height of the opening above the xumi pedestals to the width is 1:1.61, which is the golden ratio. The lintel has an abstract cloud motif, which symbolizes the unrestricted academic atmosphere of a university. The use of xumi pedestals and cloud patterns is an expression of Chinese architectural elements within a framework of Western architecture, and serves as a declaration that the school has transformed from a college of engineering into a university with colleges of engineering, business, and liberal arts and sciences. The gate is one of the signature structures representing modern buildings with Chinese traditional design elements from the post-war period.