A communitywide restoration project is bolstering the cultural and tourism appeal of historic Daxi in northern Taiwan.
Li Teng-Fang Mansion is the sole national-level historic site in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City. Built in 1864 by a wealthy merchant family, the Hakka-style residence in Daxi District is noted for its classical courtyard design, elegant swallowtail roof ridges and intricate ornamental stonework.
Since undergoing restoration and reopening to the public in 2017, this unique heritage resource has further strengthened Daxi’s rich tourism appeal. Located on the Dahan River, the port town was a wealthy trading center during Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945). Remnants of this prosperous past abound, the best known of which are the elaborate storefront facades of Daxi Old Street. Every weekend, the road throngs with visitors from home and abroad eager to explore the shops’ elaborate carved stonework and inviting array of traditional goods and snacks.
Encouraging visitors to step beyond this commercial hub and investigate the full diversity of Daxi’s heritage assets is one of the goals of a new communitywide restoration campaign. The project, part of the central government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program (FIDP), is funding the refurbishment of a host of publicly and privately owned heritage buildings throughout the area. The ultimate objective is to integrate Daxi’s varied historical assets and transform it into a living showcase of Taiwan’s economic and cultural development.
The entrance hall and a bedroom at Li Teng-Fang Mansion (Photos by Huang Chung-hsin)
Urban Regeneration
Launched in 2017, the FIDP is aimed at addressing Taiwan’s key infrastructure needs for the next 30 years. A core aspect of its urban-rural component, which seeks to upgrade quality of life in cities and townships, is the Regeneration of Historic Sites Project (RHSP). This initiative is revitalizing 30 heritage locations across Taiwan. In Daxi, this work spans the entire old quarter, including Heping Road, center of the old street, as well as parallel Zhongshan Road and intersecting Zhongyang Road.
The famed storefront facades, melding traditional Taiwan and Western Baroque architectural styles, are prominent features of all three streets and important targets of the regeneration campaign. The stonework exteriors date to the late 1910s, when local officials oversaw a redevelopment project funded by shop owners. Eager to highlight their success, proprietors competed to host the most impressive designs.
After the end of the colonial period, the rise of road and rail transport saw the port lose its luster as a trading hub, and many of the stores fell into disrepair. In the 1990s, the community banded together to restore Daxi Old Street to its former glory. With funding from the Ministry of Culture (MOC), neighborhood associations refurbished the facades, installed uniform street signs and buried electrical cables underground.
Mainly targeting Heping Road, this work is regarded as one of the most outstanding examples in Taiwan of public-private sector collaboration in heritage preservation, said Chen Chian-huei (陳倩慧), supervisor of the Daxi RHSP project. “From conception to realization, the program involved substantial input from residents, and has emerged as a model for other initiatives across the country in the decades since.”
According to Chen, the RHSP initiative is in large part an extension of these efforts, expanding regeneration measures beyond Heping to the surrounding streets. Storefront facades aside, targets of the restoration work include Japanese-era administrative offices as well as street corner houses, traditional residences-cum-stores located at or near prominent intersections.
Preservation of these buildings is essential given their vital contributions to local cultural, economic and religious practices, Chen said. Numbering more than 20, the stores are known for selling signature Daxi products like dried bean curd and wooden furniture, as well as carved altars for displaying folk deities and goods for temple festivals.
Daxi Old Street is famed for its storefront facades and classical arcades. (Photos by Huang Chung-hsin)
Generous Subsidies
Working alongside the RHSP project is the Private Old Buildings Preservation and Rejuvenation Plan. Also part of the urban-rural component of the FIDP, this initiative provides owners of heritage properties erected in 1971 and before with funding for renovation work. The subsidies typically total up to 50 percent of refurbishment costs.
The Taiwan Old House Regeneration Association, a Daxi-based community group founded in 2012, is working with the MOC to promote the old buildings plan in the district. In January, it began providing consultancy services from its headquarters, a street corner house dating to 1918 on Zhongshan Road. The structure, dubbed Lan Room, is owned and undergoing refurbishment by a consortium of association members comprising architects, artists, businesspeople, renovation specialists and scholars. “The former owners knew we weren’t a construction company that wanted to tear it down, so they were happy to sell it to us,” said Huang Shih-chuan (黃士娟), chairperson of the group and a professor in the Graduate Institute of Architecture and Cultural Heritage at Taipei National University of the Arts.
According to Huang, in contrast to the commercial buildings on Heping Road, the residences built for the local gentry on Zhongshan such as Lan Room boast more subtle architectural and ornamental details. As such, renovating them requires detailed knowledge of their design and construction, she said. Huang praised the MOC for facilitating the involvement of local cultural heritage experts as well as promoting the adaptive reuse of the structures once refurbished. Under the old buildings plan, cultural and creative businesses that rent the renovated sites are eligible for grants of up to NT$12,000 (US$390) per month for two years.
Yeh Jun-lin (葉俊麟), an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taoyuan and consultant to the FIDP heritage initiatives in Daxi, said that the plan is helping foster more balanced community regeneration. “It’s a compelling incentive for owners. They get grants and expert advice, while retaining the right to redevelop their properties in the future.”
Buildings approved for funding under the plan are not required to obtain listed status. Rather, subsidy recipients must maintain the structures in their refurbished state for a specific period depending on how much they receive. The maximum obligation of 10 years applies to those awarded more than NT$5 million (US$161,300). “When you’re faced with structural issues in aging buildings like leaky roofs or damp walls, it’s often cheaper to rebuild than repair,” Yeh said. “If we want to maintain the look of our traditional communities, we need to put our money where our mouth is and help finance conservation efforts.”
According to Yeh, over the past decade the number of city government-designated historic sites has risen from a handful to more than 100. Growing investment in cultural heritage is boosting interest in related academic courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, he said. “We’re teaching students to view preservation as an indispensable facet of urban planning and development.”
The value of this approach is demonstrated by Daxi’s enduring popularity with visitors. Helping promote the local tourism sector is the Daxi Wood Art Eco-Museum (DWAEM). The institution under the city government’s Department of Cultural Affairs features a permanent exhibition on the area’s history, as well as displays of traditional furniture and altars to showcase its woodworking traditions. The museum also administers Li Teng-Fang Mansion and spotlights local folk festivals and religious activities through funding workshops and guided tours. “These assets underscore Daxi’s distinctive tangible and intangible heritage,” said Chen, who doubles as director of the DWAEM. “This town is truly a museum without walls.”
Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw