Dihua St & Dadaocheng Route

What Dadaocheng is

Dadaocheng is a Taipei trading district that flourished in the late 19th century on the Danshui River's shipping and the tea trade. Dihua Street runs north–south through its heart, still lined with wholesalers of dried goods, herbal medicine, dry provisions, cloth and thread. Old merchant houses with baroque-style ornament survive, and before Lunar New Year the whole street overflows with people buying auspicious goods and ingredients. Lately, cafés and craft shops set in the old buildings have grown too, historic streetscape mixing with new stores. If the night market is the night face, Dadaocheng is Taipei's calm face from morning into midday.

What to eat in Dadaocheng

The area's food is mostly the plain kind born of a port town and a wholesalers' street. In the morning, a pot of rice-noodle soup drawn from swordfish stock goes out on the Dihua Street pavement. Mai Mian Yan Zai's noodles and red-roast pork, the temple-front stalls before Cisheng (braised pork rice and soups), and Miaokou's pork bun and four-herb soup by the Xiahai temple — everyday local food carries on until midday. And Dadaocheng is a street of traditional sweets. Li Ting Xiang's han bing and peanut nougat, said to date to 1895, and Ziyang's mochi, which took in wagashi craft — these keeping sweets and rice cakes suit both gifts and walking. A savory bowl and a sweet cake: that contrast is the core of the street's eating.

How to walk this route

This route's real show is from morning into midday. The morning swordfish soup, Mai Mian Yan Zai's red-roast pork and the Cisheng temple-front stalls mostly sell out and close after noon, so finishing the round in the morning is the basic plan. Head south from MRT Daqiaotou and walk the single length of Dihua Street, and the canteens, temples and sweet shops mostly line up. Local canteens and stalls are often cash only, and some signs are Chinese alone, so noting names helps you find them. Many sweets keep well, so gift-hunting can join the eating. At Cisheng you carry stall food to shaded round tables, which suits ordering a little of several and sitting to rest. It grows very crowded before Lunar New Year, so an off-season time walks easier. Hours and closing days differ by shop and can change, so confirm on the spot.