Dadaocheng: A Time-Travel Journey Through Time-Honored Shops and Trendy Boutiques

The movie *Dadaocheng* recreates the splendor of Dihua Street, narrating the tale of Dadaocheng and making everyone wonder what the district was like in the 1920s. The global success of the movie *Lucy* has also stirred curiosity about Dadaocheng. The authentic Taiwanese breakfast at the temple square of Cisheng Temple, the old-time flavors hidden along Dihua Street and Yongle Market, the century-old grandma’s braised dishes at Xiaochunyuan, and the local street food at Ningxia Night Market all allow us to get to know Dadaocheng more intimately through our taste buds.

 

Dihua Street, a hub for the distribution of dried goods and sundries, features simple and traditional architecture on its northern section, mostly in the Southern Fujian style. It used to be dominated by wholesale shops and rice merchants. The southern section, in contrast, boasts ornate styles with a mix of Baroque and modernist buildings, focusing on high-end dried goods, tea, traditional Chinese medicine, and fabrics. Many wealthy merchants of the time made their fortunes here. GuiDe Street, which flourished during the peak of tea exports over 100 years ago, saw tea merchants constructing luxury residences here, making it the earliest Western-style street in Taipei. Today, only the former residence of Chen Tianlai and the shops on Qianqiu Street still faintly retain the opulence of those early Western-style buildings. These surviving historic structures offer us a glimpse into the glorious past of Dadaocheng.

Adjacent to Dadaocheng’s spiritual center, Xiahai City God Temple, Yongle Market was known during the Japanese colonial period as the “Public Yongle Street Food Market.” Both inside and outside the market, traditional snack stalls provide energy for workers and worshippers starting their day. The fragrant morning market meals have been wafting through the air for decades, creating the most classic street vibe of Dadaocheng.