TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Dining meets discovery at New Taipei’s Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology, where a newly opened cafe leads guests from the table to the depths of Taiwan’s maritime past.

The 13 Cafe debuted Wednesday alongside the museum’s updated permanent exhibition on underwater archaeology. The space blends dining with exhibition design, creating a transition from meals to museum exploration, according to the New Taipei City Government.

Visitors move from the cafe into galleries where shipwreck artifacts and prehistoric fossils reveal connections between Taiwan’s maritime history and culture. Walking into the cafe, visitors are greeted by expansive walls textured like archaeological strata, with locally sourced natural coatings hand-troweled to evoke layers of clay and soil, according to CNA.

Replica gifts from sister museums in Japan and South Korea are on display, including boat-shaped haniwa figurines and human-faced ceramic vessels. Even the menu draws inspiration from archaeology, with dishes subtly referencing excavation, history, and place.

Just steps away, the exhibition transitions from taste to sight, featuring rare artifacts from the Bokhara shipwreck. The British luxury liner SS Bokhara sank off Penghu during a typhoon on Oct. 10, 1892, claiming 125 of the 173 people on board, according to Capitan Creative.

Shipwrecks are the most familiar examples of underwater cultural heritage, but they represent only part of the story. Such sites also include submerged inland ruins, structures lost to land subsidence or rising seas, and other remnants of the past, according to the Investigation Bureau.

A well-preserved prehistoric water buffalo skull from the museum’s collection adds to the immersive experience. Gallery visuals create the sensation of being submerged beneath the waves.

Surrounded by the sea and rich in marine resources, Taiwan has long relied on the ocean for fishing, tourism, and port trade, shaping diverse cultural traits. Its strategic location at the crossroads of major land and sea routes also fostered exchanges between Eastern and Western civilizations.

Advances in technology now allow researchers to explore and preserve these hidden treasures, overcoming historical challenges such as technical limitations and damage from trawling.