TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A new walking tour is being held in Dadaocheng to showcase Taipei’s religious and cultural sites as well as traditional fine foods.
The tour is being organized by the Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation (蔣渭水文化基金會) along with Ningxia Night Market’s “Thousand Year Banquet” (“寧夏夜市千歲宴”), which includes 20 dishes and snacks, each dating back over 50 years.
The half-day package will combine night market delicacies with a tour of 16 religious and cultural attractions curated by professional guides. It kicked off Monday (April 11) and will take place on weekend afternoons until June.
The foundation has specially commissioned Professor Yang Tian-kun (楊典錕) who has a PhD in history from the University of Tokyo, to lead the tour. Participants will receive a limited edition Chiang Weishui commemorative card to take home.
Participants will experience the Dadaocheng of the 1860s, which was the wellspring for modernist thought in Taiwan and, as an important international port at the time, fostered an open and vibrant culture that embraced Eastern and Western religious traditions, according to tour managers.
The area is host to a plethora of fascinating places of worship, including the Xiahai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟), first completed in 1859. It also houses the matchmaking deity Yue Lao (月老), who has been sought out by lonely hearts from near and far.
The area also features Taipei’s first Catholic cathedral, the Dadaocheng Penglai Town Cathedral (大稻埕蓬萊町大聖堂). The Romanesque cathedral was bombed during World War II but later restored in a modernist design as the "Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception."
There is also the Hede Temple (和德祠) on Daoxin Street. This served as the secret meeting place of Fukusei Ra (羅福星) and Liao Tian-ding (廖添丁), two national heroes who resisted the Japanese occupation around the turn of the 20th century.
The foundation said that as epidemics, wars, and a variety of natural and man-made disasters ravage the world, the mercy and love of the transcendent spirits that power all faiths are needed more than ever. The tour aims to contribute to the social rebirth and moral rejuvenation of the post-epidemic era.
To register for the tour, head to https://forms.gle/geYmLNLRQZMwVXAg8.
The tour is also conducted in English and Japanese. Those who require multilingual services should book ahead of time by phoning the Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation at (02) 2556-6015.
