Dihua Street & Dadaocheng: Taipei's Old Trading Quarter

A short history

Dadaocheng grew up around river trade in the late 1800s, when Dihua Street became Taipei's main artery for importing and distributing tea, herbs, fabric and dried goods along the Tamsui River. Much of the street's Qing-dynasty and Japanese-colonial-era shophouse architecture — narrow frontages with deep interiors, ornate baroque facades from the 1920s renovation wave — survives today, making it one of the best-preserved historic commercial streets in Taipei.

What to shop for

This is still Taiwan's main wholesale hub for dried goods: mushrooms, seafood, herbal medicine ingredients, and above all tea. Family-run shops, some operating for multiple generations, sell everything from everyday oolong to serious specialty leaves, often happy to let you sample before buying. It's a good place to pick up gifts to take home — dried fruit, preserved goods, and tea travel well.

Old trade, new design

Over the past decade, independent design shops, galleries and specialty cafés have moved into restored shophouses alongside the old trading businesses, without fully displacing them — the result is a street where you can buy dried scallops from a shop that's operated since the 1930s and then get a pour-over coffee two doors down. Xiahai City God Temple, a small but locally significant temple dedicated to the city god and the popular matchmaker deity Yue Lao, sits right on the street and is worth a quick stop.

Best time to visit

The weeks before Lunar New Year are Dihua Street's busiest and most vivid time of year, when it transforms into a dense holiday market for New Year gifts and food — well worth seeing if your dates line up, though expect significant crowds. Outside that window, weekday afternoons are calm and pleasant for unhurried browsing.

Practical information