Hukou Old Street: When the Train Moved in 1929, the Red‑Brick Old Street Remained in Place for a Hundred Years

30‑second overview: In 1893 (the 19th year of the Guangxu Emperor) Liu Ming-chuan’s north‑south railway established the “Great Hukou Station” here, turning a scattered Hakka settlement centered on Polowan into a hub for Hsinchu‑Miaoli commodities. In 1917 the Sanyuan Temple began reconstruction and was completed the following year, and red‑brick Western‑style buildings rose along both sides of the new street. In 1929 the Japanese colonial government, finding the slope too steep and unsafe for trains, moved the station north to today’s Hukou Station; the area was renamed “Old Hukou,” and sixteen years of prosperity abruptly ended. After the Nationalist government took over the former Japanese military camp and armored troops were stationed there, the post office was converted into the Fuxing Theatre, which survived a brief “little spring” before finally closing. In 1966 a Catholic church was built on the former station site, while the Sanyuan Temple remained in place; the railway‑abandoned old street thus escaped post‑war demolition and reconstruction.

The New Station Was Built on a Gentler Slope

In 1929, the Governor‑General’s Railway Department’s engineering team relocated the north‑south line’s tracks from the old Hukou Station to a site with a gentler slope¹. The reason was technical: the original segment was too steep, requiring steam locomotives to sprinkle sand on the rails for extra friction before stopping, which raised safety concerns¹.

After the rerouting, the new station was placed on the gentler slope and named “New Hukou,” while the original “Great Hukou” became “Old Hukou”¹.

This decision reduced a street that had been bustling for more than thirty years back to its original state overnight.

Polowan Arrived First, Great Hukou Followed

Before the railway arrived, the earliest Han Chinese development in Hukou was on the western side at Polowan, nearly a century earlier than the rise of the old street². The area was originally the “Polowan grassland” of the indigenous Da‑kas tribe; Qing‑era official documents also recorded it as “Po‑lao‑fen,” a transliteration of the Plains Indigenous term, whose meaning had already been lost by the time the Qing‑era Hsinchu County Gazette was compiled³. Hakka immigrants gradually settled here; a Zhang family record provides specific dates: they crossed the sea to Taiwan in 1775, first settling in today’s Zhudong’s Shuqilin, and only in 1817 did they move west to Polowan⁴. By the early 19th century, Hakka development around Hukou was already fairly complete².

The place name “Hukou” also relates to Hakka topographic terminology. Surrounded on three sides by mountains with one open valley, Hakka calls such a place “wo” (nest); “Great Hukou” referred to the collective outlet of three small basins—South Wo, Yang‑xi Wo, and Fen‑ji Wo¹. At that time no one called it “Hukou”; “Great Hukou” was its earlier name².

The railway later rewrote this name entirely.

The Train Station Turned a Scattered Village into a Market Street

In the 19th year of the Guangxu Emperor (1893), Liu Ming-chuan’s Taipei‑Hsinchu railway set up a station here called “Great Hukou Station”¹. The scattered Hakka village instantly became a transportation hub.

Local gentry pooled funds to build a temple; in 1917 the Sanyuan Temple was rebuilt to align with the new street’s orientation and was completed in 1918, featuring stone carvings, woodwork, and intricate decorative plasterwork¹.

During the Taishō era, the city layout was revised; a wide, straight road was planned between the station and the Sanyuan Temple, and red‑brick Western‑style shops were erected along both sides. Their façades incorporated clay sculptures of carp, twin lions, qilin, and the Eight Immortals, while the structural system remained Minnan (Southern Fujian) style¹.

More than thirty years of prosperity constituted the street’s golden age.

The Old Street Left Behind

After the 1929 station relocation, the commercial center of Old Hukou moved with the station. Foot traffic dwindled, and shops gradually closed¹.

Post‑war, the Nationalist government took over the former Japanese camp, stationed armored troops in Hukou, and the military dependents’ village population swelled². The post office was once converted into the “Fuxing Theatre,” showing movies for military families and giving the old street a brief “little spring”².

However, as newer theatres opened closer to the military camp, the Fuxing Theatre survived only a dozen years before closing². The later armored‑troop coup and military‑law disputes at the Hukou camp constitute another story on the opposite side of the wall, developing in a completely different direction under the same place name.

A Church Rose on the Old Platform

The old station platform was not demolished; its fate took a turn. In the 1950s, the Jesuits rented the former station, which had been converted into ordinary housing, and began missionary work there¹.

When space became insufficient, Italian Father Man Si‑chien raised funds—donated by his own parents—to build a new church in 1959, completing it in 1966⁵. This modernist‑style sanctuary sits on a small hill, gazing across at the Sanyuan Temple at the other end of the old street; a church and a temple together guard the railway‑abandoned lane¹.

In 1993, the aging priest and dwindling congregation led to the church’s closure¹. Nearly a decade later, local residents secured government subsidies to convert it into a cultural center, and the remnants of the old station platform were also listed as a historic building preservation site⁶.

In recent years, with an increase in foreign migrant workers, occasional simple Masses are held there again. A platform that lost its trains has assumed three identities, ultimately retaining its function as a gathering place¹.

📝 Curator’s note: Local tourism introductions often tell the story of Hukou Old Street as “prospered because of the railway, declined because of the railway,” which sounds like a simple tale of decay. This framework omits the crucial second half: because the railway completely abandoned the street, it never faced the post‑war widening of roads or redevelopment into high‑rise buildings that other railway‑still‑served old streets did. The red‑brick façades of Hukou Old Street have survived to this day precisely because no one had a reason to demolish them for thirty years.

After Renovation, Tofu and Taro Returned

In 1999, a joint government‑local reconstruction project replaced decayed beams and columns of 107 historic shop houses and repaired cracked arches⁷.

The old street was not rebuilt anew with the times; this actually became an advantage, allowing the red‑brick façades to remain largely intact today².

Businesses gradually returned. The long‑abandoned Fuxing Theatre was taken over by a couple passionate about Hakka heritage and transformed into a Hakka cuisine restaurant¹. In 2000, “Tofu Taste,” focusing on organic tofu, opened on the old street with the goal of becoming a century‑old shop¹. Locally unsold water taro was turned into taro‑flavored cakes and savory taro paste snacks, becoming the street’s signature flavor¹.

Before the pandemic, Hukou Old Street consistently attracted about 900,000 tourists annually; starting in 2023, Hsinchu County launched the “Stargazing Sunset” project behind the old street, constructing a 2.3‑kilometre tea‑scented trail that links surrounding tea gardens and military relics².

The Most Populous Township in Taiwan, the Quietest Street

Today, Hukou Township has a registered population of roughly 85,000, making it the most populous “township” in Taiwan⁸⁹. It comprises 20 villages over 58 square kilometres, with most residents concentrated around industrial zones and new towns.

Yet stepping onto the old street feels entirely different. The Sanyuan Temple still stands in the orientation established in 1918, the Catholic church remains on the hill completed in 1966, and the 300‑metre‑long street’s width and arched façades are still those left by the 1920s urban redesign¹¹⁰.

The year it was abandoned should have been the street’s end, but instead it became the starting point for preservation: no one was in a hurry to tear down a street that no longer generated profit.

Further Reading

• Hsinchu County — The broader context of Hsinchu County where Hukou lies: Hakka beliefs, the Yimin Festival, and the distinct sense of time in the Touqian River basin
• Hukou Camp and Victory Road Memories — The same Hukou, another chapter of military and political memory inside and outside the wall
• Hakka Food Culture — The Hakka culinary background behind street snacks such as taro and tofu
• Beitou Hot Spring Street — Another old street that rose, fell, and was revived through community‑driven preservation

References