Taiwan's Historic Streets and Commercial Districts

At a glance in 30 seconds: Taiwan has more than 30 well-preserved historic streets. From Dihua Street, which opened for business in 1851, to Lukang — part of the Qing-era saying "One Prefecture, Two Lukang, Three Mengjia" — to Jiufen, which rose to prosperity on gold mining and was reborn through cinema, to Sanxia Old Street, known as "Taiwan's most beautiful Baroque shophouse street." Each old street is a stretch of frozen time, recording the economic rhythms, architectural aesthetics, and everyday lives of different eras.

How Old Streets Came to Be

The formation of Taiwan's old streets almost always comes down to three things: waterways, commodities, and markets.

During the Qing dynasty, Taiwan's economy was centered on agricultural trade, and port towns naturally prospered first. The old saying "One Prefecture, Two Lukang, Three Mengjia" (一府二鹿三艋舺) describes the ranking of the three major commercial hubs during the Qing period: Tainan Prefecture, Lukang, and Menghua (Mengjia, modern-day Wanhua) — all of them ports. Merchant ships brought people, people brought shops, and shops extended inland from the docks, forming the earliest "streets."

During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), the Governor-General's office implemented "urban corrections" (市區改正), widening and straightening the originally winding, narrow streets, and enforcing regulations on building façades, arcade heights, and sanitation facilities. This is why many old-street buildings in Taiwan, though built by Hoklo people, feature Baroque carved column heads on their façades — that was European-style street aesthetics introduced by the Japanese colonial government, interpreted in local craftsmen's own way, ultimately becoming a unique "Taiwanese Baroque."

Ten Old Streets You Should Know

Dihua Street (Dadaocheng, Taipei): The Starting Point of Taipei Commerce

The earliest shops on Dihua Street appeared in 1851 (the first year of the Xianfeng reign), more than thirty years before Taipei was formally established as a walled city. In 1853, Tong'an people from Quanzhou who had lost the "Upper-Lower Suburb Conflict" (頂下郊拼) in Mengjia fled to Dadaocheng and built shops here, forming the "Middle Street" (中街).

During the Japanese era, Dihua Street was dominated by dry goods and tea shops, later joined by the rice, cloth, and Chinese medicine trades. From simple Hoklo-style storefronts to ornate Baroque-decorated façades, the architecture of the entire street records a century of commercial change in Taipei.

What to see today:

• New Year's Goods Street (年貨大街): The annual pre-Lunar-New-Year market is Taipei's liveliest traditional bazaar
• Yongle Market (永樂市場): The largest fabric wholesale center in Taiwan
• Xia-Hai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟): Built in 1859, famous for its matchmaker deity (月老), attracting large numbers of international visitors
• In recent years, many creative brands and coffee shops have moved in, and the blending of old and new has made the district a model of urban renewal in Taipei

Sources: Taiwan Tourism Bureau — Dihua Street; Wikipedia — Dihua Street

Lukang Old Street (Changhua): Taiwan's Second-Largest City in the Qing Dynasty

In the 49th year of the Qianlong reign (1784), Lukang was officially opened as a port for cross-strait trade with Zhangzhou's Hanjiang. The period from the 50th year of Qianlong to the 30th year of Daoguang (approximately 1785–1850) was the golden age of Lukang commerce, with a population that once reached tens of thousands, making it the second-largest city in Taiwan.

However, silting of the harbor caused Lukang to lose its shipping function and decline — yet this also meant that a large number of historical buildings were preserved, untouched by modern development.

What to see today:

Yaolin Street and Putou Street comprise Lukang's most complete collection of Qing-era Hoklo architecture — red-brick alleyways and grey-tiled urn walls are popular spots for photos. The "Touching Breasts Alley" (摸乳巷), at its narrowest point only about 70 centimeters wide and nearly 200 years old, may have originally been a homophone of "Menglin Alley" (夢麟巷)¹.

• Lukang Longshan Temple: A national historic site, built in 1786, regarded as the most beautiful Qing-era temple architecture in Taiwan
• Lukang Tianhou Temple: Dedicated to the Meizhou Mazu, it is one of Taiwan's two great Mazu temples alongside Beigang Chaotian Temple
• Traditional crafts: Wood carving, tin ware, confectionery, and pastry-making remain active on the old street

Sources: Changhua County Tourism Website — Lukang Old Street; Luohanmen historical records

Jiufen Old Street (Ruifang, New Taipei): A Mountain-Town Legend from Gold Mining to Cinema

Jiufen's story begins in 1890. When Liu Mingchuan built the railway from Keelung to Taipei, construction workers discovered alluvial gold in the Badu stretch of the Keelung River. Prospectors followed the river upstream and in 1893 found the Little Gold Melon (小金瓜) vein in the Jiufen hills; in 1894, the main gold deposit at Jinguashan was discovered — and the once-quiet Keelung Mountain was suddenly alive with people.

Gold mining reached its peak during the Japanese era, Jiufen's population surged, and densely packed houses covered the hillsides, forming a unique "mountain town" streetscape along steep stone steps. In the 1960s, the mines were exhausted and Jiufen rapidly declined, nearly forgotten by the world.

The turning point came in 1989: Hou Hsiao-hsien's film A City of Sadness (悲情城市) was shot in Jiufen. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, bringing Jiufen back into the world's view. Later, some drew a connection between Jiufen and the bathhouse in Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (though Miyazaki himself denied it), and Jiufen became a must-visit Taiwan destination for international tourists.

What to see today:

The stone steps of Qichi Road are Jiufen's most iconic scene, with red lanterns hanging high on both sides of the teahouses; A-Mei Teahouse is the building that appears most frequently in tourist photos².

• Jishan Street: The main commercial street, with snacks (taro balls, grass rice cakes, fish balls) and souvenirs
• Shengping Theater: A 1934-era old cinema, restored as an exhibition space
• Tourism challenges: Holiday crowds and chronic traffic congestion are long-standing problems

Sources: Wikipedia — Jiufen; Wikipedia — A City of Sadness; NTU Geosciences Digital Archives — Gold Mining History of Jinguashan and Jiufen

Sanxia Old Street (Sanxia, New Taipei): Taiwan's Most Beautiful Baroque Shophouses

Sanxia Old Street has a dramatic origin story: in 1895, Sanxia residents resisted the Japanese invasion and the Japanese army burned the entire street to the ground. Residents rebuilt on their own. In 1916 (Taishō 5), the Japanese government led an "urban correction," and residents at their own expense transformed traditional shophouses into European-style façades — Greek columns, Roman arches, and Baroque ornamentation, blending Western-style building elements, Japanese family crests, and Han Chinese cultural motifs.

This roughly 200-meter stretch of the southern section of Minquan Street, with its continuous red-brick arcade, is the most complete collection of Japanese-era Baroque shophouse architecture in Taiwan. At the 2007 FIABCI Prix d'Excellence in Barcelona, the "Sanxia Old Street Renovation" won the Silver Award in the Public Sector and Special Architecture category.

What to see today:

The continuous arcade arches are Sanxia Old Street's most distinctive feature; Qingshui Zushi Temple was rebuilt under the direction of Taiwanese master painter Li Mei-shu (from 1947 until his death in 1983), renowned for its exquisite stone and wood carvings, and hailed as an "Oriental Palace of Art"³.

• Indigo dyeing craft: Sanxia was once northern Taiwan's largest dyeing center; DIY experience courses are now available
• Golden Horn Pastries (金牛角麵包): Sanxia Old Street's signature souvenir

Sources: Taiwan Tourism Bureau — Sanxia Old Street; Wikipedia — Sanxia Old Street; Sanxia District Office, New Taipei City

Daxi Old Street (Taoyuan): Baroque Façades and the Cult of Lord Guan

The Daxi Old Street building complex dates from 1912 (Taishō 1), when the Taiwan Governor-General's office implemented the "Dakan Street Urban Correction Plan," widening roads and prompting residents to add ornate Baroque-style pediment decorations to their newly built shophouse façades.

During the Qing dynasty, Daxi's location on the Dahan River made it a distribution center for camphor, tea, timber, and coal. British, German, and Spanish merchants all established shops here, with trading houses and tea shops lining the streets. Today the commercial function has shifted to tourism, but those stone-carved and clay-sculpted pediment façades remain intact.

What to see today:

Heping Road, Zhongshan Road, and Zhongyang Road are the three streets with the best-preserved historic shophouses; Daxi dried tofu is the old street's most iconic specialty, with several century-old shops⁴.

• Daxi Daxi (大溪大禧): The annual procession for Lord Guan's (關聖帝君) birthday on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month is Daxi's grandest folk celebration, designated by the Ministry of Culture as one of Taiwan's "Intangible Cultural Heritage" items
• Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum: A concept that treats the entire street district as a museum, connecting old buildings with local industries

Sources: Wikipedia — Daxi Old Street; Taoyuan Tourism Website

Tamsui Old Street (Tamsui, New Taipei): Four Hundred Years of River-Mouth Scenery

Tamsui's history can be traced to 1628, when the Spanish built "Fort Santo Domingo"; in 1642, the Dutch expelled the Spanish and rebuilt on the same site — this is today's Fort San Domingo (紅毛城, so named because Hoklo people called the Dutch "red-haired ones"). In 1867, the British leased Fort San Domingo and added the British Consulate on the east side.

Tamsui Old Street generally refers to the Zhongzheng Road area (from the ferry pier to the intersection with Zhongshan Road), as well as Chongjian Street on the hillside. Chongjian Street is Tamsui's oldest street, and many wooden and brick old houses still line both sides.

What to see today:

A-gei (阿給) is Tamsui's signature snack — fried tofu stuffed with sautéed glass noodles and sealed with fish paste, steamed, with the name derived from the Japanese abura-age (油揚げ); the sunset over the Tamsui River is the most popular scenic viewing spot in the Taipei metropolitan area⁵.

• Iron eggs, fish balls, fish crackers: Classic old-street snacks
• Fort San Domingo + Little White House + Hobe Battery: Three historic sites linked together, recording four hundred years of Tamsui's international trade history
• Convenient transportation: the terminus of the MRT Tamsui Line

Sources: Taiwan Tourism Bureau — Fort San Domingo, Tamsui; New Taipei City Tourism Website — Tamsui Old Street; Tamsui Wiki

Anping Old Street (Tainan): Taiwan's Oldest Street

Anping Old Street (Yanping Street) is the first street the Dutch built in Anping, dating back to the 1620s during the Dutch colonial period. The early street was only wide enough for people and pushcarts, and the blocks were narrow. The buildings here mix Dutch, Qing, and Japanese styles, making it one of the most historically layered districts in Taiwan.

What to see today:

Anping Fort (the site of Fort Zeelandia) is Taiwan's oldest castle, built by the Dutch in 1624; the sword lion (劍獅) culture is a unique Anping apotropaic decoration, said to originate from military garrison customs during the Koxinga period, and has now become Anping's cultural symbol⁶.

• Alley exploration: Jasmine Lane, Rouge Lane, and other intricate small lanes preserve the character of an old-style settlement
• Snacks: Shrimp crackers, oyster omelets, tofu pudding, and Anping shrimp rolls are local classics
• Tait & Co. Merchant House: A British trading post established in 1867, now a historical exhibition space

Sources: Tainan Tourism Website — Anping Old Street

Beipu Old Street (Hsinchu): Taiwan's Old Street with the Highest Density of Historic Sites

Beipu Old Street is only about 200 meters long, yet it contains 7 historic sites — the highest density in all of Taiwan. This was the busiest commercial center in Beipu during the Qing dynasty and is an important testament to the history of Hakka settlement and land reclamation.

The Guangfu Public Hall (金廣福公館, a national historic site, 1833) records the history of joint Hoklo-Hakka pioneer settlement, while Tianshui Hall (天水堂) is the ancestral home of the Chiang family; the two are jointly designated as a national historic site.

• Chiang A-hsin Western-style Building: Built by a wealthy tea merchant during the Japanese era, a masterpiece of Sino-Western architecture
• Citian Temple: A county-level historic site and the spiritual center of the old street
• Hakka cuisine: Authentic ground tea (擂茶), persimmon cakes, and Hakka rice noodles
• No chain stores can be found on the entire street, preserving the pure atmosphere of a Hakka settlement

Sources: Taiwan Tourism Bureau — Beipu Old Street

Cishan Old Street (Kaohsiung): Memories of the Banana Kingdom

Cishan was formerly known as "Ciwi" (旗尾) and was already an important agricultural area in southern Taiwan during the Qing dynasty. During the Japanese era, with the rise of the sugar and banana industries, Cishan became an economic hub of the Kaohsiung mountain hinterland. In the 1950s–60s, Cishan bananas were exported in large quantities to Japan, earning Taiwan substantial foreign exchange — the beautiful title "Banana Kingdom" originated here.

What to see today:

Cishan Old Street preserves the rare streetscape of Baroque-style red-brick buildings coexisting with sandstone arched arcades (亭仔腳); Cishan Station (now the Sugar Railway Story Museum) was a station on the Japanese-era Ciwi Line sugar railway, restored as a cultural space⁷.

• Cishan Wude Hall: A Japanese-era martial arts training hall
• Banana cake, banana egg rolls: Local souvenirs dubbed the Taiwanese version of "Tokyo Banana"
• In recent years, it has at times surpassed Jiufen to become the most-visited old street according to Tourism Bureau statistics

Sources: Kaohsiung Tourism Website — Cishan Old Street

Neiwan Old Street (Hengshan, Hsinchu): Nostalgic Hakka Mountain-Town Charm

Neiwan is located in Hengshan Township, Hsinchu County, and its residents are predominantly Hakka. During the Japanese era, a railway station was established to serve the needs of the timber and coal transport industries, allowing the settlement to develop.

What to see today:

Neiwan Station is the terminus of the Neiwan Line railway, and the wooden station building itself is a nostalgic attraction; the adjacent Neiwan Theater, built in the 1950s, now serves as a restaurant and exhibition space⁸.

• Neiwan Suspension Bridge: A scenic walkway spanning the Youluo River
• Liu Hsing-chin comics: Characters "Big Auntie" (大嬸婆) and "Ah-San" (阿三哥) by local cartoonist Liu Hsing-chin are found all over the street
• Hakka snacks: Wild ginger flower meat zongzi, purple jade vegetable buns, Hakka mochi, ground tea smoothies

Sources: TravelKing — Neiwan Old Street

The Architectural Code of Taiwan's Old Streets

Walking into Taiwan's old streets, the buildings themselves are a history textbook. The architectural styles of Taiwan's old streets fall into three main categories: Qing-era Hoklo shophouses, Japanese-era Taiwanese Baroque, and the arcade (亭仔腳) design that runs through both periods.

These three styles often appear simultaneously on a single street, reflecting the layering of architectural ideas from different eras. Learning to read these architectural vocabularies is the first step to understanding Taiwan's old streets⁸.

Hoklo shophouses (Qing dynasty): Narrow frontage, deep floor plan — "bamboo-pole houses" (竹竿厝) — with a shop on the first floor and living quarters on the second. Red-brick load-bearing walls, gable roofs with upturned swallow-tail ridges, and doorways possibly decorated with stone carvings or cut-and-paste porcelain (交趾陶).

Taiwanese Baroque (Japanese era): A product of the "urban corrections" promoted by the Japanese government. The deep floor plan of the shophouse was retained, but the façade was transformed into a European-style composition — symmetrical layouts, classical columns, arched openings, and floral motifs. Materials evolved from traditional brick and wood to reinforced concrete and pebble dash (洗石子). Every pediment was the owner's calling card: the more elaborate, the better the business. The Baroque shophouses of Sanxia, Daxi, and Cishan are the most representative.

Arcades (亭仔腳): The most practical architectural element of Taiwan's old streets. A public corridor formed by setting back the front of the first floor, providing shade and shelter from rain, and also serving as an extension of commercial activity. This design both adapts to the subtropical climate and creates a uniquely Taiwanese sense of street space.

The role of traditional craftsmen: The fine ornamentation of Taiwanese Baroque is backed by generations of accumulated artisan technique. Clay sculptors were responsible for the floral and bird reliefs on pediments, pebble-dash craftsmen created the texture imitating natural stone, and painters used mineral pigments to depict folk stories. Some of these skills have been sustained under the Ministry of Culture's "Traditional Arts Preserver" certification system, but a generational break in transmission is a widespread problem — once an old building is damaged, it is often difficult to find craftsmen who understand the original techniques for restoration. When Sanxia Old Street launched its building façade restoration project in 2004, it specifically recruited elderly masters familiar with Japanese-era pebble-dash techniques to assist; in subsequent restorations, it has been difficult to find the same team.

Architectural details can also help date an old street's construction: pebble-dash walls are most commonly seen from the 1920s–30s, exposed brickwork from the Qing dynasty through the 1910s, and RC concrete frames became widespread after the 1930s. Family crests and trade symbols on pediments — scissors for the cloth trade, abacuses for money shops — are visual entry points for reading the commercial history of an old street.

The Dilemma of Preservation

The greatest challenge facing Taiwan's old streets is commercial homogenization, not simply a matter of architectural preservation.

When an old street becomes a tourist attraction, rents rise, and original local shops are replaced by chain brands or cookie-cutter "old-street snacks." You'll find that the things sold on old streets from north to south are increasingly the same — sausages, grilled squid, marble soda. Old streets become night markets in historical-building shells.

Relatively successful cases include Dihua Street: through urban renewal and creative-industry placement strategies, it has preserved the traditional wholesale trade in dry goods while introducing independent brands, design studios, and coffee shops, creating a district ecosystem where old and new coexist. Lukang, through the continuation of traditional crafts (wood carving, tin ware), has maintained the old street's cultural distinctiveness.

Another dimension of the challenge is tourism carrying capacity. Holiday crowds in Jiufen have seriously affected residents' quality of life and the visitor experience, and traffic congestion is a long-standing, unresolved problem. The New Taipei City Government has studied traffic control measures multiple times, including restricting private car entry on weekends and promoting shuttle buses, but due to merchant protests and enforcement difficulties, results have been limited.

Government preservation mechanisms: The Ministry of Culture promotes old street revitalization through the "Historic District Preservation and Regeneration Program," with measures including building exterior renovation subsidies (up to 60% of renovation costs), building façade regulation and control, arcade clearance improvement grants, and traditional craftsperson certification and transmission subsidies. Tainan City's designation of the Anping old town as a "Historic Scenic District" under unified management is one of the more complete local preservation systems.

New thinking through design intervention: The model of "design entering historic districts" has gained attention in recent years. Tainan's Shennong Street is not a major old street, but through artist residencies and nighttime lighting projects, it has formed a creative cluster that attracts independent travelers and avoids the homogenization pressure of low-price competition. The Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum's concept of "the entire street district is a museum" allows building preservation to coexist with residents' daily lives, and is seen as a model that balances cultural and residential quality. How to strike a balance between tourism economics and cultural preservation is a question every old street faces. Scholars point out that successful old street preservation is not about "freezing time," but about keeping the district inhabited and lived-in — because a true sense of history comes from the daily accumulation of generations, not from museum-style set restoration.

Further Reading

• Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture — Historic Architecture Database: Searchable database of registered historic buildings and sites across Taiwan
• Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum: A model case of cultural preservation treating an entire street district as a museum
• Lukang Folk Arts Museum: Permanent exhibitions of Qing-era folk crafts and traditional architecture

References