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Back when the mining industry was booming, Chow Man-Chun Bakery on Shihfen Street was thriving. Locals bought every kind of pastry—whether for weddings, funerals, festivals, offerings, or everyday snacks—from Chow Man-Chun. In an era when the average daily wage was barely seventy-something NT dollars, the shop could pull in over a thousand NT dollars a day. Besides retail sales, many people also bought in bulk to resell. The arrival of Western-style cakes dealt a heavy blow to traditional bakeries, and Chow Man-Chun faced an even tougher challenge: the decline of mining sent Pingxi’s population into steep decline—at its peak it was four or five times today’s number. After 1986, Chow Man-Chun had no choice but to transform itself into a general grocery. Yet it still sold Pingxi cakes (traditional moon-cakes) and golden flaky pastries (offerings for the gods). With the rise of tourism on the Pingxi Branch Rail Line, Chow Man-Chun was reborn. Young visitors come to release sky lanterns and never forget to drop by for a taste of old-time pastries. The shop now turns out updated versions of vintage cakes: quarter-size “big” cakes, golden flaky dumplings, curry biscuits, mung-bean pastries, and peng-bing. The moment they emerge from the oven, their aroma is irresistible.