Dihua Street

You are on Dihua Street, the oldest street in Taipei. Even today, merchants here sell dried mushrooms, nuts, medicinal herbs, fabrics and incense, just as they did a century and a half ago.

1A district born of defeat

In 1853, the migrants from Tong'an lost the Ding-Xia feud in Bangka and moved downriver to Dadaocheng, a name meaning «the great rice-drying ground». This street, then called Middle Street, was laid out in the 1850s. A few years later, the treaties that followed the Opium Wars opened the port of Tamsui to international trade, and Dadaocheng became the great market of northern Taiwan.

2Tea fever

The Scottish merchant John Dodd encouraged the growing of oolong tea in the nearby hills, and in 1869 he shipped a large cargo to New York under the name «Formosa Tea». The business filled Dadaocheng with warehouses, tea-roasting workshops and foreign trading houses. The facades you see combine Chinese-style houses from the Qing era with baroque brick fronts added during the Japanese period.

The name Dihua was given in 1947, after the city of Dihua, today's Ürümqi, in northwest China.

In the weeks before Lunar New Year, the street fills with a huge market selling everything needed for the festival.

3What to look for

• The baroque facades, with pediments and shop names in relief.
• The arcades, which shelter shoppers from sun and rain.
• Yongle Market, where tailors still work with fabric.