Beimen Old Street, Hsinchu (北門街, 新竹)

(Last update Apr 2023) Years ago some friends took me on a little walking tour down Beimen Street in Hsinchu. There were some beautiful shophouses, elaborate temples, and a large group of ruined traditional mansions. I wanted to hold off writing this piece until I got access to some of those mansions but on two subsequent trips my attempts failed. I've decided to record my findings now those mansions are being restored.

The length of Beimen Street from my Hsinchu drawing. You can really see how over-sized the apartment towers are here.

Beimen is one of the oldest streets in Hsinchu and was once the most prosperous. It's lined with historic shophouses that are mostly from the 1900's – 1930's, however a couple of groups of these have been lost in recent years. It runs from the City God Temple area to what was once the location of the North Gate. Here it passes the elaborate Shuixian and Changhe Temples, before curving round and passing more historic architecture. Many of the buildings still house traditional businesses such as medicine stores, tailors, and even a traditional puppet store.

The street begins with a characterful group of red brick shophouses with arched windows and portals. They each have green balustrades and plaques for the business’s name. This style seems to be distinct to Hsinchu and can be found on other old streets in the area.

Sadly what comes next is a weak imitation of this style. This is the first of two locations on the street where historic buildings have been demolished in recent years and replaced by ugly imitation facades. These facades front groups of enormous tower blocks which are totally out of scale with the rest of the area. The center of Hsinchu is compact and the nearby city outskirts have a lot of vacant land. It's unfortunate that places that help draw tourists to the city and that the residents appreciate have been replaced by towers that could have been built elsewhere. Another issue is the narrow streets were not built to hold the volume of traffic these developments bring.

Before and after. Why not restore or clean up the old facades and keep them?

Fortunately the next building is one of the grandest on the street and has a quite philanthropic owner. The wide frontage of the Zhou Yi Ji Old Residence from 1926 has delicate balconies and gable details, although it is in need of some repairs and better upper floor windows. It was never used for commerce so the ground floor is mostly original too. In an unusual move the owner applied for heritage protection which was remarkably selfless and very uncommon in Taiwan. Even if the rest of the street is destroyed at least this house will remain. As of 2023 this house is being restored.

Of note along here also is the large three floor art deco building which now houses a flower shop and two pretty shophouses with ornate gables. The Jin Dexing bedding shop is over 100 years old and one of the oldest buildings on the street .

A lot of the rest of this stretch of the street however could be described as 1970's grot. A second group of crappy imitation facades fail to hide some more giant apartment towers are here. Look closely around the side of these towers and you'll notice a remnant of the older structures attached to their side. This belongs to an elderly gentleman who wouldn't move and so it remains as a nail house. Perhaps the complex was originally going to stretch across what is now a car park but this structure prevented that? As of 2023 this house is still there though apparently uninhabited.

It almost looks like there was a plan to save some facades that later fell through

You can see here what makes these parcels of land so coveted by big developers. The historic houses are on unusually long plots and so there's a lot of space between Beimen and Datong Road where larger buildings can fit. This also means there was ample space to save most of the street-fronting parts of the houses and set the towers back more, like a particularly good project on Dihua Street in Taipei did.

Another late 1930's building forms the corner of Beimen and the busy Beida Road.

Across from here, past the police station, are the intricately detailed Changhe and Shuixian Temples.

The larger temple on the left is called Changhe Temple. It honors the deity Mazu who is said to look after seafarers. Most people who had businesses relating to the sea and rivers would pass through Beimen as they headed towards the close harbor. The Mazu statue came from Meizhou in China and the shrine was built here around it in 1742. Although it has undergone some renovations over the centuries the temple is still atmospheric and has a lot of old style charm. In the rear hall Guanyin is worshiped along with a whole host of minor gods. A huge amount of light towers (lit for protection) occupy side wings.

Shuixian was built in the 1860's to honor the “Water Immortal Honorable King”, also known as Great Yu. This figure was the first emperor of the Sia Dynasty and is said to have controlled flood waters during his lifetime. He was once worshiped in the rear hall of Changhe Temple but it was cramped so he was given a purpose built temple. Both temples have excellent English signage which is quite rare.

Opposite the temples is a nice row of arched shophouses but the more important sites are a little further onward.

The shops opposite are a little run down

On the left here is a once grand courtyard mansion called the Zheng Jinshi House which looks like three separate houses at first glance. The complex has five courtyards though the rear halls are damaged. Most of it was built in 1838 in the Kinmen style by Zheng Yung-Xi. Zheng was the first Taiwan born person to pass the Jinshi Civil Service exam in Beijing, the highest level possible in Qing China. The name of the mansion is a celebration of this. He was also permitted to build a brick wall around the city replacing the earlier bamboo wall from which Hsinchu (New Bamboo) gets its name.

One damaged entrance surrounded by intricate carved stone panels

Later generations failed to look after the mansion and it was damaged in World War 2. Many parts have collapsed and become overgrown. Only the first two entrances are somewhat intact. The third has almost completely collapsed. The carvings on the building are particularly beautiful and the mansion is still elegant. On one visit I saw a caretaker outside one of the homes. I had a short conversation and hoped I might be invited in to look around but he seemed very shy and that he just wanted to be left alone. I decided against jumping fences given the fragility of the buildings.

Another entrance, a look at the overgrown rear halls, and a look through one of the doors at one of the courtyards

According to this article restoration has started and I've noticed in recent photos a green fence is around the house. It seems the project took a long time to start due to disagreements with the owners on how it should be done and how compensation should be arranged. (As of 2023 the furthest south part of the complex is almost completely restored. The rest is behind a white fence so it’s hard to get a close look at the details in many of these photos)

The immaculate building next to the Jinshi Mansion is the Zheng Family Ancestral Shrine. While they let the mansion fall apart at least this building has been well cared for. It was built in 1853 and although it is not open to the public it still has a beautiful exterior. As the family came to Taiwan by way of Kinmen it is also in the style of buildings there.

Lots of stone tablets (steles) marking important events and achievements

Around the corner are a couple of elaborate shophouses which were once a clinic. The streets nearby contain a few more historic buildings and courtyard mansions but sadly many of these have been removed in the last few years to make way for more apartment towers.

A beautiful and well looked after house that was sadly destroyed in 2018 and replaced by some gray luxury apartments

Hsinchu City it has to be said seems to be doing a worse job than most places regarding its built environment. Hopefully with the restoration of the Jinshi Mansion this will change and the Beimen Street area will become prosperous again. Since this article was written the city has gotten a lot better in this regard.

All locations are on the Hidden Taiwan map. The adventures that make up these entries are often posted as Instagram stories at tomrookart first. So give that a follow too if you like as it can sometimes be a year or more before stuff turns up here! I keep this project free of intrusive ads but it does take up a fair bit of time. If you would like to support it please consider buying some of my work here

Beimen Old Street, Hsinchu (北門街, 新竹)

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