The History of Taps in China

The earliest taps in the world are not yet clearly documented in historical sources, but in ancient China folk would tie bamboo through and link them one by one to bring water from rivers or mountain springs for use, which is seen as the origin of the ancient tap.
The first prototype of the tap was originally used as a fire-fighting tool, known as a 'ki-tong', or 'water dragon', and was generally made of long bamboo, which could both draw and drain water. It can be traced back as far as the Northern Song Dynasty, when Zeng Gongliang depicted a ki-tong in one of the illustrations in his book The General Principles of the Martial Arts. But before the Northern Song Dynasty, it had been used as a toy by children living in bamboo-producing areas for a long time. In the Ming dynasty, it was recorded that "a long bamboo tube was used, with an open aperture underneath, like a flock wrapped in water, to pump water from the aperture". In ancient times, it was not only used to extinguish fires, but also for irrigation.
In the early Qing Dynasty, there was a modified version of the "water dragon" fire extinguishing apparatus, said to have been introduced from Japan. It is said that this is a kind of human-powered water pump, which is much larger than the water bags and kippers, and can spray water uninterruptedly, and it is somewhat similar to the dragon that sprays water from the sky, so it is called "water dragon", and the belt that receives water is called "water dragon belt". The belt to catch the water was called the "water dragon belt", and the spouting head was called the "water tap", which was later omitted from the name "tap".
In ancient China, however, the faucet was always a tool for extinguishing fires, and before liberation, people still relied on river and well water for most of their water, which was inconvenient. It was not until after the liberation that people's water habits changed, with drinking water from rivers and wells gradually becoming tap water. 1883 saw the establishment of China's first surface water supply plant in Shanghai, which completely changed people's water habits, and the tap gradually came into people's lives in modern times.