大溪老街

The Daxi that Japan left behind (日本留下的大溪)

If it weren’t already obvious enough, I’m a big fan of living in Taoyuan. 

I take a lot of online abuse for being one of the city’s biggest proponents, but even though I do love other areas of Taiwan like Taipei, Hsinchu and Tainan, I couldn’t ever see myself actually moving to any of those places on a full time basis. I’d miss home too much! There is of course a long list of reasons why I love living here, but I’m not going to list all of them here today.

I will however be highlighting one of the areas I absolutely love visiting whenever I have some free time. Coincidentally, it is also the same place that most Taiwanese think about whenever considering coming to Taoyuan for the day - Daxi Old Street (大溪老街).

There has always been a healthy, yet contentious debate in Taiwan with regard to which “Old Street” or “Night Market” is the best, with most people claiming the one located closest to them is the best, but I think in the case of historic tourist streets, Daxi was crowned the undisputed champion long ago. Not only does the street feature absolutely beautiful art-deco baroque architecture, but it also serves up some pretty amazing food to visitors and offers daytrippers a number of other things to see and do, making a trip to Daxi one of the best day trips in northern Taiwan. 

And yeah, I might be accused of playing favorites considering where I live, but I count myself lucky that I can simply ride my scooter over, park in an alley and go exploring whenever I feel like it, avoiding the weekend traffic and massive crowds of tourists.

I suppose you could say that one of the benefits of being a resident of Taoyuan is that I often get to see a part of Daxi that most of the weekend visitors miss. So while most people stick to the popular Old Street, known as “Peace Street” (和平街), there are a number of quiet alleys and lanes throughout the downtown core of the village that feature the same style of century old architecture, but are home to hip new cafes and restaurants.

The Taoyuan City Government likewise has invested heavily in the restoration of historic buildings in Daxi, which is helping to diversify tourism as well as providing people with an ever-growing number of things to see and do while visiting the area. Of particular interest (for me at least) are the restoration projects that have revived the Japanese administrative quarter of the town, which is as much a part of the history of the village as the historic old street itself. 

Not only is Daxi home to one of Taiwan’s most beautiful Japanese-era Martial Arts Halls, there are also a number of other buildings within the village (and nearby as well) that have been beautifully restored and reopened to the public as culture parks - all of which allow people to learn more about the compelling history of this small, yet extremely important little village. 

Today I’ll be offering a general introduction to some of these recent Japanese-era additions to the Daxi tourist scene.

In the future I plan to use this space to link to individual articles about each of these buildings, but that’s going to take a bit of time as there is still a lot of restoration work ongoing in the area.

But before I get into any of that, let me start by offering a brief introduction to Daxi and why the Japanese Colonial Era had such an impact on the small village nestled in the mountains of Taoyuan.  

Daxi during the Colonial Era (日治的大溪)

During the Japanese-era, The Taoyuan City (桃園市) that we know today was merely just a district (郡) of what was known as Shinchiku Prefecture (新竹州 / しんちくしゅう). Located in the area south of Taipei, or Taihoku (台北州廳), Shinchiku Prefecture encompassed much of what we refer to now as Taoyuan-Hsinchu-Miaoli (桃竹苗), with the capital of the prefecture located in Shinchiku City (新竹市 / しんちくし). 

As much of Taiwan had yet to really start development of anything larger than small settlements, the cities that we know today as Taoyuan (桃園), Zhongli (中壢), Zhudong (竹東) and Miaoli (苗栗) were simply classified by the Japanese administration as ‘districts’ (郡), and were essentially part of hierarchical subdivisions of the larger prefecture that could be further broken down into towns and villages.

Taoyuan County’s recent amalgamation into the supercity known as ‘Taoyuan City’ retains much of the original geographic boundaries found during the colonial era. That being said, the current city is divided up into thirteen “districts” (區) while the Japanese only used three: “Chuureki”, “Toen” and “Taike.” 

The interesting thing is that within these Japanese-era “districts”, you’ll find each of the contemporary administrative districts that make up Taoyuan City today.

  1. Chuureki (中壢郡 / ちゅうれきぐん), otherwise known as “Zhongli District” and included Zhongli (中壢街 / 中壢區), Pingchen (平鎮庄 / 平鎮區), Yangmei (楊梅庄 / 楊梅區), Xinwu (新屋庄 / 新屋區) and Guanyin (觀音庄 / 觀音區).

  2. Tōen (桃園郡 / とうえんぐん), otherwise known as “Taoyuan District” and included Taoyuan City (桃園街 / 桃園區), Luzhu (蘆竹庄 / 蘆竹區), Dayuan (大園庄 / 大園區), Guishan (龜山庄 / 龜山區) and Bade (八塊庄 / 八德區).

  3. Taikē (大溪郡 / たいけいぐん), otherwise known as “Daxi District” and included Daxi (大溪街 / 大溪區), Longtan (龍潭庄 / 龍潭區) and the mountain indigenous area we now refer to as Fuxing (蕃地 / 復興區).

Interestingly, the 1942 census (the final one taken during the Japanese era) reported that the population of the three districts of Shinchiku Prefecture mentioned above that make up what we know today as “Taoyuan City” was 288,740 - a fraction of the 2,245,059 people living here today. 

The focus of this article however is on Shinchiku Prefecture’s district of Taikegun (大溪郡 / たいけいぐん), or what we refer to today as Daxi (大溪區). One of Taoyuan’s most popular tourist attractions, Daxi has long been a hotspot for Taiwan’s weekend travelers thanks to its beautiful Old Street, traditional Hakka culture, and of course its delicious food. 

Daxi Martial Arts Hall

As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few of these touristy ‘Old Streets’ in Taiwan, and one of the things that the vast majority of them have in common is that they date back to an era of prosperity during the Japanese colonial era, when Japanese architects were showing off their skill with contemporary art-deco baroque-style architecture. Daxi Old Street is no different and is highly-regarded throughout the country as one of the best preserved examples of the architecture of that era of Taiwan’s history. 

It should go without saying that the history of Daxi as we know it dates back much further than the arrival of the Japanese in Taiwan.

Occupied several thousand years prior by Taiwan’s indigenous Atayal people (泰雅族), the area was long known as Takoham (大姑陷/大嵙陷) by those living along the creek that we refer today as the Dahan River (大漢溪). Then in the late eighteenth century, Han settlers started migrating to the area, helping to turn it into an important trading outpost. The early settlers made their riches extracting camphor and tea by way of the Dahan River and into Taipei via the Tamsui River (淡水河) where products would be sold and exported from the ports in Bangka (萬華), and later from Dadaocheng (大稻埕). 

The history of Han settlement in the area, particulalry that of the Hokkien people (閩南人), who were forcibly pushed out of Taipei due to political and economic warfare between rival clans in the late nineteenth century, is certainly a juicy soap-opera-like situation that I highly recommend everyone learn more about.

Essentially, the events of the Ding-Xia Conflict (頂下郊拚) of 1853 helped to shape Taipei into the city it is today. 

Links: Xia-Hai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟) | Qingshui Temple (艋舺清水巖) | Clashes in Monga a hundred years ago - Chronicles of the Gang Leaders of History (Digital Taiwan) 

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When the Japanese arrived in Taiwan in 1895, Daxi had already become a thriving town of merchants and traders, but that was a situation that would quickly change within a short period of time as the colonial government wasted no time getting to work on a network of railways around the island that would ensure a more efficiently and quicker transfer of goods than the rivers ever could. 

By 1909 (民治42年), the west coast north-south mainline railway (縱貫線) between Taihoku (台北州) and Takao (高雄州) was completed and the need for river transport was pretty much nullified, dealing a major blow to the village as a major trading port. Fortunately, Daxi had more to offer than just its position as a trading port and the town made some changes that allowed it to maintain its role as an economic powerhouse. Continuing with the extraction of camphor, but also branching out into other areas with its production of tea, and the skill of local artisans in making handcrafted wooden furniture. 

From the perspective of the Japanese authorities, Daxi was an extremely important village thanks to its ability to (safely) extract and transport camphor in addition to its production of tea, which surprisingly accounted for approximately seventy percent of Taiwan’s entire tea production at the time. So, even though Taikegai (大溪街 / たいけいがい) was considered a small ‘village’ within Shinchiku Prefecture, it had an established economic base and was a gateway to the mountains, which were instrumental in the colonial government’s plan for extracting Taiwan’s precious natural resources.

Taikegun” (大溪郡), or Daxi District may have had its administrative district within Taikegai as mentioned above, but it was ultimately responsible for the administration of 577km² of land that likewise included neighbouring Ryutansho (龍潭庄 / りゅうたんしょう), and the mountain indigenous area (蕃地), known today as Fuxing District (復興區).

As an economic powerhouse, the colonial government dedicated a tremendous amount of resources in the area to ensure that the village’s economic vitality could continue. Thus, the government invested heavily in administrative infrastructure that included the construction of Administration Halls (役所), Post Offices (郵便局), Banks (銀行), Assembly Halls (公會堂), Public Schools (公校), Shinto Shrines (神社), Buddhist Temples (佛教廟), Police Stations, etc.  

While the purpose of this article is to talk about the remnants of the Japanese era that can be found today in Daxi, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that even though the history of Daxi is long and complicated, the so-called Old Street that has become so popular with tourists only dates back to 1919 (大正8年), and almost everything that we see today is a result or influenced by the Japanese-era.

The Restoration of Japanese-era buildings in Daxi

Thanks to the leadership and foresight of the Taoyuan Cultural Affairs Bureau (桃園市文化局), there has been a revival in recent years with regard to Daxi’s Japanese-era history. The local government has invested a considerable amount of money in the restoration of many of these important historic buildings, and came up with a perfect way to put them to good use, highlighting an important part of what makes Daxi so special. 

The Cultural Affairs Bureau officially inaugurated the Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum (桃園市立大溪木藝生態博物館) on January 1st, 2015 (民國104年), a project that would emulate the Scandinavian concept of ‘integrating the local community with the preservation of cultural assets’ and today the museum encapsulates many of the historic Japanese-era buildings that have been restored in the historic administrative neighbourhood of the village. 

Link:  Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum (Wiki)

In total, the ecomuseum is spread out across a network of buildings that includes the Japanese-era Assembly Hall, police and teachers dormitories, the Martial Arts Hall, and in the future will expand to include several more dormitories as well as a massive warehouse. Suffice to say, as time passes and the museum continues to grow, this space will likewise continue to be updated as well.

While the ecomuseum is primarily located within Japanese-era buildings, its important to note that the beautiful Lee Teng-Fang Historic Residence (李騰芳古宅) is also included in the list of buildings under the control of the museum. 

Link: Official Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum (桃園市立大溪木藝生態博物) - 中文 | English

I won’t go into detail to get into what you’ll find in each of the buildings exhibition-wise as I’ll leave that for future articles about those spaces, but as a “wood-art” ecomuseum, you’re safe to assume that you’ll find that quite a few of them proudly display the mastery that the people of Daxi have when it comes to woodworking, with displays of furniture, ornaments and other kinds of art.

I’m not personally too invested in that kind of thing, but there are fortunately also exhibits that focus extensively on the history of Daxi, and I could spend days checking them all out.

Without further adieu, here’s the list of remaining Japanese-era buildings and things to see while you’re visiting Daxi. 

Daxi Assembly Hall (大溪公會堂)

As the only remaining building of its kind in Taoyuan, I’m happy to finally say that the former Daxi Assembly Hall has finally been brought back to life and returned to the public, for which it was dedicated to more than a century ago! 

An important part of any large community during the colonial era, the Daxi Assembly Hall was constructed in 1921 (大正10年) and was a public meeting space and venue for local art and music performances. Constructed with a fusion of Japanese and Western-style architecture and construction methods, the hall is quite stunning in its design. 

When the Second World War ended, the interior of the hall was renovated and it became a mansion for President Chiang Kai-Shek and his family when they were vacationing away from the capital. After his death, the hall was converted into the earliest ‘Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall’ (蔣公紀念館) and was opened up to the public for visits. 

Not to be confused with the actual Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂) in Taipei, or his final resting place in nearby Cihu.

Today the hall has been split up into two exhibition spaces under the control of the Wood Art Ecomuseum, with the Wood Furniture Exhibition (木家具館) taking up the large space in the Assembly Hall while the Wood Life Exhibition (木生活館) is located within the extension on the side. 

Daxi Shinto Shrine (大溪神社)

The Daxi Shinto Shrine (大溪社 / たいけいじゃ) was constructed in 1932 (昭和7年) and was located in the area where you’ll find the Daxi Park (大溪公園) today. Unfortunately the shrine was torn down in 1946 (民國35年, shortly after the arrival of the Chinese Nationalists.

Even though the shrine was destroyed, several pieces remain today, including the Walking Path (參道), Stone Lanterns (石燈籠), the Stone Guardian Lions (狛犬), and the original stone base where the Hall of Worship once stood. 

Today you’ll find a several-layered tower constructed on the base of where the shrine once existed. If you climb to the top of the tower, you’ll easily be able to enjoy a nice view of the river basin and the historic Daxi Bridge that stretches across the river.

The area where the Shinto Shrine is located is well marked and you can easily walk over and check it out, it won’t take too much time. 

Daxi Public School Principal’s Residence (大溪國小校長宿舍)

The Daxi Public School’s Principal’s Residence was the first of the Japanese-era dorms to open up to the public as part of the wood-art ecomuseum project. Known in Chinese simply as “Building Number 1” (壹號館), the building dates back to the 1920s and is a beautiful family-style dorm that would have been occupied by whomever was the administrator at the nearby Daxi Public School prior to the end of the war. 

Today the building acts as an information centre for the Wood-Art Ecomuseum with exhibitions dedicated to the history of Daxi and woodworking in the area. 

Daxi Martial Arts Hall (大溪武德殿)

The Daxi Martial Arts Hall is considered to be one of the most beautiful of the remaining Japanese-era Martial Arts Halls in Taiwan.

Constructed in a fusion of Western-Japanese style architecture, the building dates back to 1935 (昭和10年), and was used to help train the police and military who were stationed in the area in Japanese Martial Arts. 

When the colonial era ended, the hall was repurposed as a police outpost for members of the Military Police who were charged with the personal protection of President Chiang Kai-Shek and his family when they were staying in the area until it was abandoned in 1999.

The hall has recently been restored and as part of the ecomuseum provides a large space for rotating exhibitions in addition to others that tell of the history of the building.  

Link: Daxi Martial Arts Hall

Daxi Sumo Arena (大溪相撲場)

When the Daxi Sumo Arena was completely reconstructed within Daxi Park, I was a bit surprised.

During the Japanese era, Kendo and Judo were taught within the Martial Arts Halls (like the one I mentioned just above), few people however realize that sumo was something that was also practiced here - although to what extent, I’m not particularly sure.

Nevertheless, since the reconstruction of the Sumo Arena, several events have been held by the local government to bridge the gap between Taiwan and Japan with regard to the sport of sumo. While I doubt we’re going to see a resurgence in the (somewhat obscure) sport here in Taiwan, it is a pretty cool nod to the past that surprises most people.   

Daxi Police Chief Residence (大溪警察宿舍)

The former Daxi Police Chief’s Residence located behind the former Daxi Police Station (Currently Daxi Civil Centre) and as one of the highest ranking public officials in the area, the dorm that was provided for the chief and his family was considered quite swanky for the time. 

Constructed in 1901 (明治34年), the dorm has remained occupied for much of its 120 year history, but has thankfully been restored and is now known as the Craft Exchange Hall (工藝交流館) and will feature exhibitions meant to help educate people on the process of making wood-art and connecting Daxi’s expertise to the world at large. 

One of the best things about this dorm is that it comes equipped with a beautiful front and back yard and is covered with trees, making the whole thing more like a mansion than a dormitory. You’ll also find a bomb-shelter next to one of those trees, although it isn’t open to the public as of yet.

Daxi Police Dormitories (大溪警察宿舍)

Another one of the Police-related dormitories, the building we know today as the Artists Building (藝師館) was once a dorm for members of the Daxi District Police (大溪郡役所警察宿舍), which I’d venture to guess were a bit higher in rank than the town police. Constructed in 1941 (昭和16年), the dorm was one of the later additions to the group of dorms in the area, but is a beautiful single family dorm space and was likely occupied by a high ranking officer and their family rather than a group of officers. 

Today the space is dedicated to Daxi’s masters of wood-art and tells their story.   

Kensei Shoco Department Store (建成商行)

Currently undergoing a process of restoration, the facade of the former Kensei Shoco Department Store will likely be completely repaired within the next year or so. That being said, the interior of the building had already been completely demolished, leaving only the beautiful facade left standing. I’m not sure what they’ll ultimately do with the interior space, but the facade is probably the most beautiful and the grandest example of the art-deco baroque design that you’ll find in Daxi, so the fact that its being restored is a great thing. 

Daxi Well (大溪百年古井)

The century-old Daxi well, located in an alley between the Martial Arts Hall and the Kensei Shoco Department Store is one of the only (still-functioning) wells of its kind around Taiwan and it has recently been given a bit of attention with a Japanese-style roof covering. Even though this is an important antique, it also serves as a functional one as the local people continue to pump water out of it today! 

Daxi “Six-Row” Police Dorms (六連棟宿舍群)

The most recent of the former police dorms to graced with a restoration project, the so-called “Six Row” dorms are located in an alley to the rear of the former police station and are surrounded by the Police Chief Residence and the “Four Row” dorms, mentioned below. 

Unlike those dorms, which were constructed for higher level members of the police force, this cluster of buildings were all relatively smaller, each of which only offering about 60㎡ of space (18坪) to their residents.

That’s about the size of a small two-bedroom apartment in Taiwan today. 

When the colonial era ended, like all the other dorms, these smaller residences continued to be occupied by members of the police force, but as time passed they were renovated and changed quite a few times which altered their original layout and design. 

As the dorms are currently still undergoing their restoration process, I’m not as of yet sure how they will be used within the larger ecomuseum, but my guess is that they will focus on the lives of the residents of the post-colonial era, similar to the exhibitions you’ll find at the nearby military villages that have been restored. 

Daxi “Four Row” Police Dorms (四連棟宿舍群)

Currently used as an exhibition space dedicated to the ‘history’ of Daxi (大溪人。生活與歷史), I’d have to say that these dorms feature what is probably my favourite of all of the exhibitions put on display by the ecomuseum. Thanks to the meticulous focus on the history and development of Daxi during the colonial era and after, you’ll find informative displays within each of the buildings and if you’re as interested in this stuff as much as I am, its likely that you’ll be able to spend a considerable amount of time inside! 

Daxi Agricultural Warehouse (大溪食鹽肥料倉庫) 

Dating back to 1942 (昭和17年), the former Daxi Salt and Fertilizer warehouse is a distinctive building in that even though it was merely a warehouse, it featured some pretty distinctive architectural styles. Constructed only a few years prior to the end of the Second World War, the warehouse has served a number of roles in the years since, but is now open to the public as an exhibition and venue space. 

With over 830 square meters of interior space, the warehouse will be an extension of the Wood-Art ecomuseum and will serve a number of roles, but one would hope that it would become popular music venue, like the spaces at Huashan in Taipei and the old warehouses in Hsinchu park, for example.

The building has only been freshly restored though, so we might need some time to see what they’ve got planned for it! 

Daxi Tea Factory (大溪老茶廠)

Constructed in 1925 (大正14年) by the Taiwan Agriculture and Forestry Company (台灣農林公司), the Daxi Tea Factory was an important staging point in the production of tea during the Japanese era, especially since as I mentionnd earlier, Taoyuan was at one point responsible for the production of over 70% of Taiwan’s total tea export.

The tea factory is a short distance from downtown Daxi, and you’d probably need access to your own means of transportation to get there, but as one of the first Japanese era buildings in the Daxi area to be completely restored, it has long been a popular tourist destination and was for quite some time one of the most popular Instagram photo locations in Taiwan.  

Getting There

If you weren’t already convinced, there is quite a lot to see and do while in Daxi, and if you are making plans to visit the historic village, you obviously have quite a few options. For most visitors, the obvious destination is the historic Old Street, but now that all of these Japanese-era buildings have opened up within the same area, we’re blessed with even more to do. 

That being said you’ll also find popular tourist destinations like the Daxi Tea Factory, Zhai-Ming Monastery, the Cihu Mausoleum, the TUBA Church and the Sanmin Bat Cave nearby. Unfortunately some of these destinations are only only accessible if you have your own means of transportation. 

So lets talk for a few minutes about how to get to Daxi Old Street. 

A bit of a reminder though, I’ve introduced quite a few destinations in this article, so instead of giving directions to every single location, I’ll use a base starting point, the Daxi Civil Affairs Office (大溪區公所), where you’re conveniently able to make use of public transportation as well as finding parking for your cars or scooters.

Address: #11 Puji Road, Daxi District, Taoyuan City (桃園市大溪區普濟路11號)

GPS: 24.99368 / 121.29696

Car / Scooter

If you have access to your own means of transportation, getting to Daxi shouldn’t be too difficult. Simply input the address or the coordinates provided above into your GPS and you’ll find yourself there in no time. While driving a scooter shouldn’t pose much of a problem for most visitors, even during the busiest times, driving a car is a completely different story. 

The problem with driving a car is that there are often traffic jams and long waits for parking spaces on weekends as well as during national holidays, when the area is at its busiest. 

Given how narrow the streets are within the downtown core of Daxi, parking near the Old Street can be somewhat difficult and it is very rare that you’d be able to find roadside parking. This means that the further you park away from the main tourist area, the cheaper it will be. 

In order to help control the flow of traffic, there are a number of parking lots in the area that you’ll want to consider, each of which I’ve marked on the map above. The first two are probably the best options for parking as they are the largest and cheapest of the parking lots, but they will require a bit of a walk to the tourist area. 

  1. Qiaotou Parking Lot 橋頭停車場 ($50NT)

  2. Yuemei Parking Lot 月眉停車場 ($50NT)

  3. Ting’er Parking Lot 停二停車場 ($30/hour weekdays - $40/hour weekends)

  4. Old Street Park Parking Lot 老街公園停車場 ($30/hour weekdays - $50/hour weekends)

  5. Old Street Parking Lot 老街停車場 ($30/hour weekdays - $50/hour weekends)

High Speed Rail / Train

As I’ve already mentioned, the construction of the railway forced the people of Daxi to come up with new ideas for making money - That being said, it should be fairly obvious that there aren’t any railway stations in the vicinity of the village. You can however take a train or the High Speed Rail and conveniently transfer to one of the buses or shuttles that take tourists out to the area. 

High Speed Rail (臺灣高鐵)

Take the Taiwan High Speed Railway to Taoyuan HSR Station (桃園高鐵站) and from there transfer to Taiwan Trip Shuttle Bus #501

Taiwan Railway (臺灣鐵路)

  • From Taoyuan Railway Station (桃園火車站) 

From the Taoyuan Train Station you’ll want to transfer to Taoyuan Bus #5096 to Daxi.

  • From Zhongli Railway Station (中壢火車站) 

From the Zhongli Train Station you’ll want to transfer to Taoyuan Bus #5098 to Daxi. 

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Bus 

There are a number of options for taking the bus to Daxi either directly from the railway stations in Taoyuan or from Taipei. I’ll provide each of the buses that you can take below with links to where you can find the bus, their route map and their schedule.

  1. Taoyuan Bus #5096 (Taoyuan - Daxi)

  2. Taoyuan Bus #5098 (Zhongli- Daxi)

  3. Taoyuan Bus 9103 (Banqiao - Daxi)

  4. Taoyuan Bus #710 (Yongning MRT Station - Daxi)

  5. Taiwan Trip Bus #501 (Taoyuan HSR Station - Daxi) 台灣好行大溪快線

Links: Taoyuan Bus (桃園客運) | Taiwan Trip Shuttle (台灣好行)


References

  1. 探討大溪老街的建築特色與時代意義 (李政瑄, 邱筱雅, 楊佳穎)

  2. 大溪木藝生態博物館 (中文 | English)

  3. 桃園市立大溪木藝生態博物館 (Wiki)

Lee Teng-Fang Historic Residence (李騰芳古宅)

Over my years of living in Taiwan, I have been the subject of a lot of jokes and comments from friends for living here in Taoyuan. Admittedly, when I first decided to come to Taiwan I read some information about the area where I'd be going and from what I read, the reviews of the county (now city) weren't particularly that great with a lot of expats referring to the area as the "armpit" of Taiwan.

When I arrived however I quickly learned to appreciate Taoyuan for a lot of different reasons. The city may not have a massive and super convenient public transport system like Taipei does, but what it does have is close access to nature, the mountains, the airport and also gives me the ability to travel to a lot of places in northern Taiwan quite easily.

Taoyuan might not have have a lot of popular tourist attractions but there are a lot of under appreciated historic sites that I've been lucky enough to visit and not have to deal with crowds of tourists.

If I'm to be blunt, in the first few years of living here we had KMT heavyweight Eric Chu (朱立倫) who was then followed up by John Wu (吳志揚) serve terms as the county magistrate and it was quite obvious that they basically did nothing of any significance during their terms.

Fortunately the political tide in Taiwan turned a few years back and Cheng Wen-Tsan (鄭文燦) of the DPP was elected mayor of the county by a thin margin. The election of Mayor Cheng has been nothing short of amazing for Taoyuan and it is easy to see that the mayor has not only spent a considerable amount of time modernizing and revitalizing the area but has also spent a considerable amount of effort in restoring Taoyuan's various historical places of interest into attractive tourist destinations for both domestic and international tourists.

For some, this may not be a big thing, and I'm sure that many people haven't even really noticed, but for someone like me who has lived here for a long time, I see the Taoyuan of today as a place where people will want not only want to live, but to visit to experience Taiwan's history and that of the vibrant Hakka culture that is so well-preserved here.

Under Mayor Cheng's leadership Taoyuan is becoming a place that people want to visit rather than a place that people try to avoid. I'd give the guy a prize if I could, he's doing an amazing job and I have to say that whenever someone makes a comment about Taoyuan, I just ask if they've visited lately.

The subject of today's post is yet another example of one of the many accomplishments of Mayor Cheng (and all of the people elected across party lines at the Taoyuan City government) and is one that has been going through a period of renovation for almost as long as I've been running this website.

Coincidentally I had planned for this to be one of the first posts on my blog a few years back when I started all of this, but I felt that I didn't have enough photos to really do it justice and it was shut down for renovation meaning that I'd have to wait until work was completed.

The Lee Teng-Fang Historic Mansion (李騰芳古厝) reopened to the public in late April and I made sure to get over as quickly as possible to check out the work that had been done as well as getting the photos needed to write a blog about it.

With this blog post I'm going to depart from my usual style of delving (way too much) into the history and instead talk about some of the renovations and my general feelings about the difference in visiting the mansion today than when I originally visited it a few years back.

Part of the reason for this is that one of my favourite Taiwan authors, Richard Sanders has already written extensively about the mansion in an article in a much more eloquent way than I ever could - If you want to know more about the history of this beautiful mansion, I suggest checking out some of the photos here and then checking out Richard's article for more context.

Article: Li Teng-fang House - One of the finest surviving examples of a Hakka residence in Taiwan 

History

In my blog about the popular Daxi Old Street (大溪老街) I touched upon the history of the village which was at one time a major player in the early Taiwanese economy. Daxi, like quite a few other villages in Taiwan found its early commercial success thanks to its proximity to the mountains and because it had a once thriving river that gave merchants the ability to transport tea and camphor out of the village in a time when modern forms of transportation were unavailable.

The area we refer to as the "Old Street" today was originally constructed as a shortcut to transport goods to the river and as the economy grew in the village, businesses soon starting popping up along the street.

As people started to become wealthy, they wanted a way to show off a bit of their prosperity so they hired artisans to come and help design and carve beautiful stone designs on their homes and businesses along the main street and the streets around it.

The wealthiest of the villages merchants however built their homes away from the hustle and bustle of the busy village area and the Lee Teng-Fang mansion, which was the biggest of its time remains the most well-preserved to this day.

The Hakka-style mansion, which is now classified as a grade two historic mansion complex was built in 1859 and consists of two main buildings with four side buildings with a large courtyard in front of the building, one in the centre of the building and a brick wall surrounding it.

Built on the banks of the all-important Dahan River (大漢溪), the mansion today blends in with the beautiful fields of rice and farms that surround it making it a quiet and peaceful place to visit compared to the hustle and bustle of the old street. If you visit during the summer, you are likely to see the rice paddies replaced with fields of wild flowers which makes the ride over from the old street even more enjoyable.

The Lee Family was a wealthy one that originally hailed from the Fujian Province area of south-eastern China. Making its fortune in the rice industry, the family patriarch Lee Bingsheng (李炳生) opened the Lee Family Store (李金興商號) in Daxi village (near the old street) and was one of the most well-respected merchants in the area.

Wealth allowed the family to make education a priority and the academic excellence achieved by Lee Teng-Fang, one of the three sons in the family brought a lot of pride to the people of the Daxi village region.

In 1856, Lee Teng-Fang (at the age of 43) passed the first of his important civil examinations achieving the level of a "scholar" (秀才). Soon after, he travelled to China on a few separate occasions for higher level exams achieving the rank of a middle-ranked official (中舉) and then as a high-ranked official which brought with it a commendation from the Emperor.

The Lee Teng-Fang mansion was built as a gift to the prestigious student with construction starting (as mentioned above) in 1859 after Lee passed the first of his important examinations and was completed a few years later in 1864.

After passing the exam, the people of Daxi got together and in Teng-Fang's honour constructed a special road from the village to his family home and renamed the area after him - Daxi's original name was "Daguxian" (大姑陷) and was renamed to "Dakeken" (大嵙崁溪). The road is still in use today and is the one that brings you from the old street to the mansion. The village however has since been renamed.

Since its completion in 1864, the mansion has been expanded upon on several different occasions with a new hall being completed in 1926 and then several renovations and restoration projects since then with the latest being completed at the end of April 2017.

Renovation

The renovations of the complex are where I'd like to spend a little bit of time - For the most part not a lot was done to change the overall look of the mansion. The restoration process took care of some of the wooden carvings on the walls and on the roof as well as restoring some of the artwork on the walls as well as adding some interactive exhibits for people to learn about the history of the area as well as that of the mansion and other traditional houses like this.

The restoration process took a few years to complete and I suspect that the majority of time was spent on having local historians and artisans come in to repair and recolour the murals on the walls as well as on the outside of the halls as well as the traditional decorations on the various sections of the roof which have been fully restored.

The major difference between the most recent renovation and my previous visit is that the rooms to the sides, which were originally bedrooms, kitchens and dining rooms have since been filled up with interactive exhibitions that explain the function of each.

One of the "cutest" additions is that of a holographic display of the family's pet cat sleeping on the floor and chasing a rat that appears out of a whole in the wall. The whole thing seems completely unnecessary and isn't really the kind of thing I want to see while visiting a place like this, but I suppose it does its part to keep the children interested while visiting.

If you have a bit of time while visiting the mansion, there are guided tours available and there are also rooms which have projectors that teach a bit of the history of the building. I feel like if you want to really have a full understanding of the history of the Daxi area, the mansion and the story of how the family became so wealthy, then by all means take a seat and check it out.

In most cases when buildings like this undergo a restoration process of this kind they end up adding a bunch of kitschy and unnecessarily 'cute' things that ruin the historic aesthetic of the building. In the case of this mansion, the cuteness was kept low-key and the majority of the time was spent in the areas where the building needed the most attention to ensure that its history could be enjoyed by future generations.

Getting there 

 

Website: English | 中文

There is a lot to do in Daxi and if you are making plans to visit the historic village, you have quite a few options for places to visit to spend your time. Most people will spend their time on the historic Old Street while others might check out the Daxi Martial Arts Hall, the Daxi Tea Factory, Zhai-Ming Monastery, the Cihu Mausoleum, the TUBA Church or the Sanmin Bat Cave.

No matter what your plans are, if you are visiting the area, a stop over at the Lee Teng Fang Mansion is recommended. The village is equipped with the popular Ubike public bicycle sharing system so getting to the mansion from the main area of the town is quite easy. You could also drive or scooter over to the mansion, but I think the experience of bicycling along the pathway that Lee Teng-Fang himself would have walked each and every day is a great experience.

I'm happy to see that this beautiful mansion has finally been reopened to the public and I'm also quite pleased that I waited to blog about it until now. The day I visited had beautiful blue skies and the photos turned out quite well, especially compared to the last time I visited.

If you are interested in Taiwan's history at all, I think a visit to a beautiful old mansion like this is a great learning experience and a much better one than you'd have in a museum I might add. I may not enjoy some of the new additions but they don't really take away from the overall experience of visiting the mansion. Be sure to check it out if you're in the area!


Zhai-Ming Monastery (齋明寺)

On the last day of my Lunar New Year holiday I planned an action-packed day that would require waking up a lot earlier than usual during the holidays and getting myself out to Daxi Village to get more photos for my blog about the the Daxi Butokuden. From there I had plans to visit a historic property near the village which has been under renovation and closed to the public for several years now before meeting my friends for dinner and drinks in the late afternoon. 

After visiting the Butokuden I drove over to the historic property only to find out that while its Facebook page said it was reopened, it was in fact still closed. Extremely unimpressed I quickly decided that I'd use the time to go check out a local Buddhist monastery which has become somewhat of an in-thing these days with tourism in Taoyuan.

Daxi has always been one of my favourite places to visit and even after a decade of living in Taoyuan, I'm happy that I'm still finding new interesting things all the time. The village is popular with tourists both domestic and international for its popular "old street" (大溪老街) and the Cihu Mausoleum (慈湖陵寢), the newly reopened Daxi Tea Factory (大溪老茶廠) and for people like me, the Daxi Butokuden.

The monastery which sits on a mountain on the opposite side of the Dahan River (大漢溪) is known as Zhai-Ming Monastery (齋明寺) and was originally constructed in 1873 (清同治12年). Known as one of the oldest monasteries in the area, it was classified as a Third-Grade Historic Site (三級古蹟) by the Ministry of the Interior in 1985.

While the traditional Fujian style 'Sanheyuan' (三合院) building is impressive in design, what attracted me most to this historic building was the amazing amount of imagery found on the roof and on the outer walls of the building which tell not only the Buddhist story but also includes a bit of local history and culture.

Before I get into that though I'm going to talk about the modern history of the popular monastery - In 1999, Master Sheng-Yen (聖嚴), founder of Dharma Drum Mountain (法鼓山), one of Taiwan's largest Buddhist organizations assumed control of the ancient monastery. The organization made plans to restore the beautiful property to its original glory, but in September of that year the devastation 921 Earthquake (921大地震) which rocked the entire country caused quite a bit of damage to the monastery. 

After years of restoration, the monastery reopened to the public in 2009 with the original buildingbeing completely restored while making a few additions with modern lodgings for the monks of the Dharma Drum Mountain to the side and an impressive newly constructed "Zen Hall" behind the original building.

The new buildings were constructed with the vision that the original building should be the main attraction while the newer buildings would fade into the surroundings with the emphasis on maintaining the natural environment offering a blend between modern and ancient architecture.

The original Sanheyuan itself was meticulously restored with artisans restoring the beautiful imagery both in the interior of the building and receiving expert care. The result is an extremely well preserved historical building that has once again become a functional monastery as well as having imagery that as far as I'm concerned rivals only that of nearby Qingshui Temple in Sanxia.

Originally founded as a Buddhist monastery in 1873, the history of the temple has seen periods of integration of both Taoism and Chinese folk religion and periods of administration that were led by laypeople (non-monastics). That all changed though when the people at Dharma Drum took control of the property and returned it to its original roots as a Buddhist monastery.

The origins of the monastery dates back to 1850 when a local farmer named Li Ajia (李阿甲) became a Buddhist and decided to take a pilgrimage to Putuo Mountain (普陀山) in China. The mountain which sits on an island southeast of Shanghai is one of China's four sacred mountains (四大佛教名山) and is an incredibly important site for Chinese Buddhism.

Li's pilgrimage brought him to Fa Yu Temple (法雨寺) where he became a monk receiving the Dharma name "Hsing-Yue" (性悅). A few years later he returned to his hometown bringing with him a statue of Guanyin and built a cottage there where he intended to continue his monastic life and promote Buddhism in Taiwan.

When it comes to temple design, Taiwan is second to none in the way these beautiful buildings are constructed and that is something that has been consistent throughout the last several centuries of development. Temples dedicated to Taoism and Chinese Folk Religion are typically very ornate while temples dedicated solely to Buddhism are often a little bit more low-key.

This monastery however keeps with the low-key design aspect of typical Buddhist places of worship but when we consider that over the years the temple evolved from its original purpose as a Buddhist monastery and included aspects of Taoism and Folk Religion, it makes sense that it has ultimately become a bit more ornate than others and the imagery displayed on the outside of the temple in the form of murals and sculptures on the roof make the main part of the temple an interesting place to look and enjoy the craftsmanship that went into both its construction and its recent restoration.

While visiting the monastery it's important to keep an eye out for the murals that are painted and carved on the exterior of the building. The murals tell the story of the Buddha's life in chronological order (from left to right) from his birth to enlightenment and his death. There are also murals of Dragons, Qilin (麒麟) and various other mystical animals painted throughout the exterior.

An interesting thing to note is that you will find various versions of the Chinese word "明" (Ming) throughout the temple. For example you can see both "朙" and "眀" which are old words and are rarely used anymore these days. They all have the same pronunciation and the same meaning which makes their usage here quite special and is also a sign of the age of this building.

The interior of the building is quite interesting albeit quite small - Unfortunately they don't allow photography in the main shrine area so I wasn't able to focus on too many of the minute details. The main shrine is dedicated to Guanyin (觀音) while the shrines to the left and the right are dedicated to Taoist and Folk Religion deities.

The staff at the monastery are quite strict about not allowing visitors to take photos inside, so the best I could do was use my telephoto lens to get a few shots of the main shrine. While the staff are quite strict they are also quite helpful and are more than willing to discuss even the minute details of the building. I spent most of my time at the monastery chatting with one of the workers who I found to be extremely knowledgeable about the history of the place and was even able to teach me a few interesting things.

As mentioned above, the monastery has become somewhat of a tourist attraction as the local Taoyuan government continues its admirable efforts in promoting the once obscure county into one that is attractive to both domestic and international tourists. The county has targeted many of its historic buildings for restoration and has started to promote them.

The monastery is open to the public for tours and offers Buddhist lunches and dinners as well as classes for people who want to learn more. While visiting the temple its important to be relatively quiet as it is a functioning monastery, but don't be afraid, you won't be hassled by people for donations or pressured to listen to any lectures. The monks that walk around will smile and greet you but won't push an agenda on you.

If you are in the Daxi area, I highly recommend a visit to this beautiful monastery so that you can appreciate this beautifully preserved historic building as well as the beautiful hiking trail behind it which gives excellent views of Daxi village, Daxi Bridge (大溪大橋) and the Dahan River.

Location / Address

 

Address: #153 Zhai-Ming Street, Daxi Village, Taoyuan County. 

地址:桃園市大溪區齋明街153號 電話:03-3801426