aeeble

Xizhi Old Street is the one-kilometre stretch of Zhongzheng Road between Xizhi Railway Station and Limen Street. Once known as “Shui-fan-jiao Street”, it served as a vital riverfront transshipment point on the Keelung River and was called “the first street of Xizhi”. Its former prosperity left many historic traces: traditional red-brick walls and Baroque-style Western houses still line the road, along with landmarks like Niuchoutou Wharf, the public market, granaries, churches and the remnants of the old barrier gate. Family businesses now in their third generation—rice shops, cloth merchants, pharmacies, incense stores—continue to operate. Long, narrow shophouses preserve the street’s traditional façade. The cramped entrance to Zhongzheng Old Street sits directly opposite the railway station. What makes the street special is that parts of it still retain Qing-dynasty and Japanese-era architecture and ways of life. Remnants of its bustling past survive in memorable historic spaces: Jide Temple (Matsu Temple), Zhongshun Temple (site of Prince Kitashirakawa’s shrine), the Public Market (remains of the Japanese Shichisei Market), the torii gate in Xizhi Park, Jianshun Tea Company, the Baroque Chen Wan-qi Heritage House, the Cai Ding Ancestral Hall, the Taishō-period Su Family House, and the brick-arched Yu Family House. These landmarks give Zhongzheng Old Street its enduring old-world character and make it a precious cultural asset of Xizhi.