Some of Northern Taiwan's most picturesque -- and underrated -- townscapes are hidden in the vicinity of Taipei's suburban Taoyuan Airport, the default gateway for most international visitors to Taiwan. We visited two of these historic towns on Day 1 of our 11-Day round-island voyage.
This article is a rebuttal against the bad rap of Taoyuan as an uninspiring suburb of Taipei, deemed trivial to tourists except for its disproportionally enormous airport. Try mentioning Taoyuan to a typical foreigner and it most likely evokes dreaded images of dilapidated housing blocks and monotonous factories, much like Tokyo's Narita or London's Gatwick.
Those 99.9% of visitors are regrettably missing the old school charm of Taipei's ultra-traditional backyard, merely 30km from the 21st century metropolis yet stuck in the Japanese colonial era due to isolation from Northern Taiwan's ever-expanding metro networks. With brand new metro stations being planned for both towns within the next decade, now would be the time to visit before they become the next Tamsui.
Visually distinct from the traditional Minnanese architecture dominant just about everywhere else in Taiwan, the towns of Daxi and Sanxia are renowned for their eccentric Baroque-esque architecture fitted with Chinese calligraphy plaques and auspicious totems in the local custom.
The historical townscape of Japanese era merchant houses and covered porticoes has been preserved largely through geographic isolation over the past century when the business district of Taoyuan gradually shifted away from these old river ports. The easiest way to access either town today is by direct buses from the regional bus terminal (see map) located one block south of Taoyuan Station.
Our strategy for the entire round-island trip was simple. Book a cheap hotel (the pictured Audi Garden in Taoyuan's case) within walking distance from a major train station, and leave our luggage with the hotel or at the train station's lockers or luggage rooms (both available at Taoyuan Station) while we go sightseeing. Pick up the luggage when we're done and take an express train to the next major station. Repeat.
A 45 minute ride on Bus 5096 transported us to Daxi's bus terminus and back to the reign of Japanese Emperor Taisho in the 1920s, when the colonial government backed the town's full renewal in neo-Baroque, then-fashionable in the Japanese mainland for major projects such as the pre-war Tokyo Station.
Like its downstream sibling of Sanxia, Daxi started as an inland port on the Dahan River on the old trade route with Qing Dynasty China, shipping its precious achiote timber downstream to modern day Taipei en route to Quanzhou and the Fujianese coast. Even today furniture manufacturers and wood carvers still dominate the town's narrow alleys.
Baroque facades of the historic quarter are remarkably embellished with Minnanese motifs such as carps and peonies in an exceptional fusion between East and West. This immaculate preservation of a bygone era is what you won't likely encounter in metropolitan Taipei.
In a complete contrast of architecture, the southwestern quarter of town features a series of Japanese Machiya houses from the Taisho-era, now renovated and reopened as the Woodart Ecomuseum.
Aside from the pictured former residence of the town's Tokyo-appointed school principal, the Japanese neighborhood also features the remnants of a Shinto shrine and an outdoor ring for sumo wrestlers. Nowadays the neighborhood has become largely occupied by artisan furniture workshops alongside contemporary teahouses and shaved-ice shops.
On Heping Road we came across this photogenic storefront featuring old-fashioned candies and toys from the 1950s, along with Japanese-influenced soft drinks and other objects of nostalgia targeting domestic Taiwanese visitors.
Aside from artisan furniture, Daxi's other claim to fame is its traditional recipes for tofu derivatives ranging from the silky soft dessert of Douhua to the extra firm, soy-marinated Dougan, evidenced by the town's overabundance of specialty soybean product shops. But instead of purchasing the ubiquitous pre-packaged Dougan as a souvenir, we sat down at one of the town's renowned Dougan specialists for a second breakfast.
LAO'ABO MARINATED DOUGAN (Taoyuan)
Location Map
At a town synonymous with the old peasant favorite of Dougan -- literally desiccated tofu -- this unassuming shop has ascended to the pantheon of Tofu specialists through decades of backbreaking perseverance. Boasting prized photos from numerous appearances on TV programmes and magazine interviews, Lao'abo has slowly evolved from a cheap mobile food cart prowling the neighborhood alleys to a bonafide restaurant and souvenir outlet based on the success of one time-tested recipe ...
... their signature 50-year-old soy-based marinade married to an assortment of tofu derivatives from Dougan to Vegetarian Tripes (Sudu) to Tofu Skin (Baiye Doufu), all simmering away inside a series of steel platters. Aside from the soft-boiled Golden Eggs, every item was vegetarian.
Our small order of signature Dougan, marinated Kombu kelp and Golden Egg came with a dollop of green scallops and the optional complement of garlic chili paste for just TWD 40 (CAD$1.7). A full order of assorted Dougan would have cost TWD 120, though we would rather save some stomach room for our next town.
Bill for Two Persons
| Marinated Dougan + Kelp | TWD 20 |
| Golden Egg | TWD 20 |
| TOTAL | TWD 40 (CAD$1.7) |
Our next destination wasn't technically within Taoyuan anymore, but the neighboring conglomerate of municipalities collectively known as New Taipei City. Sanxia could be easily accessed from Daxi via Bus 9103, though somehow we complicated the journey by taking a bus to Yingge train station before transferring to Bus 702 to Sanxia.
A sister town downstream from Daxi, Sanxia was another 19th century river port that thrived on Qing Dynasty trade with Mainland China, swapping its raw camphor and indigo cloth in exchange for cultured goods from Quanzhou. And similar to Daxi, Sanxia's historic quarter is an immaculate specimen of Japanese-Taiwanese Baroque in colonial era red bricks, now lined with loose-leaf tea stores and complemented with an indigo dyeing exhibition.
Guarding the old town's entrance is a Qing Dynasty shrine with the unmistakable parabolic rooflines and ornate stone sculptures that speak of its Minnanese heritage. This Zushimiao is dedicated to Zenmaster Qingshui, a Song Dynasty monk who became deified into the expansive pantheon of Taiwan's folk religions.
TAOYAN QINGSHUI MIGAO (Taoyuan)
Location Map
Half a block from the Qingshui shrine we found lunch at an informal eatery offering the peasant snack of Qingshui Rice Pudding -- named after the town of Qingshui in central Taiwan and not the Qingshui shrine 50m down the street. I don't care for the opinion of Google Maps reviewers who rate it 1.7 out of 5 at the time of writing; the fact that this little eatery has stood for 30 years testifies that it must be doing at least one thing right.
And this is what they're doing right -- the signature Qingshui Rice Pudding, a mini tub of steamed glutinous rice mixed with soy-marinated pork belly and the pungent essence of dried shrimps. Drenched in a fragrantly sweet-and-spicy sauce of Taiwanese red wine yeast, this cheap and filling snack was definitely worth of my recommendation.
On the other hand, the watery Spare Ribs Noodles showed why the reviews tended to be polarized. In retrospect we should have ordered a Rice Pudding for each of us and saved more stomach room for the town's famous Golden Bullhorns.
Bill for Two Persons
| Qingshui Rice Pudding | TWD 40 |
| Spare Ribs Noodles | TWD 90 |
| Steamed Water Spinach | TWD 40 |
| TOTAL | TWD 170 (CAD$7.4) |
What are Golden Bullhorns you ask? Sanxia's famous edible souvenir is not a croissant despite the physical resemblance, but a harder, crunchier shell that may come with external sprinklings (custard crumble, cheese etc.) or internal fillings (Azuki beans, Matcha cream etc.) for around TWD 25 to 30 each. Three popular bakeries (Kangxixuan, Jinsanxia, Sanxia) seem to have divvied up souvenir market, though I've been told that they all taste nearly identical. Don't expect any gastronomic miracles, but as a snack it's really not bad.
No pickled radish and firm tofu as souvenirs for us -- we still had to bring our luggage onto Taiwanese trains and circle the island over the next 10 nights. We took Bus 702 (15 minutes) back to Yingge Station, then a 7-minute ride on the frequent local train back to Taoyuan to pick up our luggage from the locker. Our express train to Taichung would depart at about 16:30, taking 90 minutes to bring us from the North to Central Taiwan.
IF YOU GO
If you're planning a round-island trip like us, Daxi and Sanxia are both accessible by bus from Taoyuan's bus terminal (see map), a quick 5 minute walk south of Taoyuan train station. Take Bus 5096 to Daxi or Bus 5005 to Sanxia and get off at the final stop, within walking distance of their respective historic towns. To travel between the two towns, take the infrequent Bus 5005.
Taoyuan train station is a major stop on the Main Line between Taipei and Changhua, served by Express Trains. Or if you're going to Taoyuan Station directly from TPE Airport, take Bus 706 from the UBus counter.
