3 Water-based Attractions in Tainan You Probably Didn’t Know About  @taiwanscene Taiwan’s oldest city and urban area, Tainan, located in the country’s southwest, is a destination known for its many temples, sweet local food and culture. However, did you know that it has a variety of water-based attractions that tourists would be foolish to miss out on? From unique hot…

On June 30th 2013, the Hayashi Department Store(林百貨), the largest of Tainan’s old building’s, was opened for tours after refurbishment. Crowds lined up from 7 am until the afternoon to enter the “five story building” (五棧樓仔) built in 1932 during the Japanese Colonial Time. It was a very busy part of Tainan, but after the end of the Japanese Colonial…

Shennong Street (神農街) was the entrance to the Tainan Five Channels area important river ports from the Qing Dynasty. Merchants at the time would all enter Tainan through this street, making it the busiest district. However, a century of evolution has transformed the original river port into a city road. While the street was formerly in decline due to being…

Behind the Matsu Temple, the fort was a stronghold of Dutch power until its capture by Koxinga in 1661 after a nine-month battle. In Kangxi Emperor’s regime of Qing Dynasty, Taiwan was included in the empire that the political center was transferred to Tainan City, causing the decline of the Fort. The red bricks of the Fort have been taken…

To the right of the Anping Fort entrance you’ll find some of the oldest streets in Taiwan. Anping Old Street (安平老街) was the first street in Taiwan to be given a name. More than 300 years ago this was the first street built by the Dutch in Anping. In the early days, the street was built solely for pedestrians and…

If you are a historic buff as well as a hipster, you can’t miss the museums when visiting Tainan. There are some museums in Tainan, and among them, the top choice museum is National Museum of Taiwanese Literature(國立台灣文學館). The National Museum of Taiwan Literature (NMTL), founded on October 17th,2003, is the first national museum dedicated to the literary arts. The museum…

As we talk about Tainan, it might be a city with historic atmosphere or a city riches in fishery. Old buildings and temples are everywhere in the city while oyster farms and salt mountains are omnipresent in some regions. The oldest extant salt field is located in Jingjijiao, Beimen in Tainan. It is called Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields(井仔腳瓦盤鹽田). If you have chance to…

This shrimp wanton restaurant is in the north of the city, out near the DaQiao Railway Station. It’s called Shih Chiu Wontons(士久扁食). Specialising in a slightly different wanton, Shih Chiu look to keep it simple, whilst packing flavour. They also manage to provide a good selection of food they can quickly braise for you in their house stock, which goes well…

GuaBao, know it? If the answer to that is anything but an emphatic “Yes”, then you’re going wrong somewhere. Imagine a light, fluffy steamed bun, filled with slow-cooked pork, topped with pickled mustard greens, peanut sugar, and a sprinkling of coriander. There is a GauBao shop I would like to introduce to you, 不刈樣刈包 Booking-Young. Now, Booking-Young go for a slightly…

This may be a specialist chain soy milk shop, but they do much more than that.  Anything with 豆漿 in it, means soy milk. So, for the soy milk selection, we have: sesame (芝麻), adlay millet (薏仁), black bean soy milk (黑豆漿), almond (杏仁), and black tea (紅茶). But, it doesn’t stop there, this shop focuses on healthy drinks. So, we…