East Gate (Jingfu Gate)

In front of you, ringed by cars, stands Taipei's East Gate, officially called Jingfu, «great fortune». It is one of the few remnants of the wall the Qing dynasty completed in 1884, when Taipei was the seat of a new prefecture.

1A city of five gates

The wall had five gates and enclosed a rectangle of straight streets between two older trading towns: Bangka, by the river, and Dadaocheng, further north. The road to the farmland in the east left through this gate, and its construction was paid for partly by donations from people living in that area. Like the North Gate, it had a fortified outer court in front to defend the entrance.

2A wall turned into boulevards

After the Japanese arrived, the wall was demolished between 1900 and 1904. In its place they laid out broad tree-lined boulevards with three carriageways, and the gates were left standing as isolated monuments. Those boulevards still trace, almost exactly, the outline of the old city.

The gate you see is not quite the original: in 1966 the upper pavilion was rebuilt in the style of northern Chinese palaces.

The original look, much plainer and built of brick, survives only at the North Gate, which you will see on the mixed route.

3What to look for

• The stone base and its arch, which do belong to the 19th-century gate.
• The 1966 pavilion, with its green roof and upturned eaves.
• The alignment of the gate with the Presidential Office Building at the far end of the boulevard.