Christine L.
Yelp
Dihua Street (迪化街) is one of the oldest streets in Taiwan. Presently, it's most well known for being a marketplace/street primarily focused on providing selling luxury and medicinal dried and preserved goods. According to the auntie who brought us, it's getting harder and harder to find a wide selection of the kinds of stuff they carry in one place. Additionally, it's also well known for its historical and cultural value, and the community there as a whole has gone through great lengths in terms of conservation and preservation of the buildings, traditional crafts and arts, and various practices.
So Dihua Street is actually within the Dihua Street Commercial Loop (迪化街商圈), which is primarily a traditional shopping district. Among the many spots you can visit around here, including 姚德和青草號, or Yao de Herb (an old medicinal herbal tea shop) and an old tea shop/processing facility turned tea museum. I couldn't find a name for it, but it's a lovely two-storied museum that shows the process of drying tea (using the old pits, darkrooms, and traditional equipment displayed in the back) as well as how people use to live in the upstairs displays. They even have a family shrine upstairs, which I'm told that the descendants of the original family who lived in the place still visit and pray at.
The street itself was formed in 1805 after they redrew the lines in Taipei. As a result, they linked a number of parts that were formally prominent meeting places for Dutch merchants, as evident of the distinctly European buildings constructed during the Dutch Formosa in the early 17th century. It's actually because of this time period that the street is still such a prominent market in things like herbs, spices, dried and preserved goods, as well as more traditional arts and crafts. You'll have the southern part (or 南街) where you can see the more ornate buildings that echo what you would typically see of European monuments. In the northern part (or 北街), you'll see brickwork arches and walls and the multi-storied brick building takes up that one corner. The auntie that took us said the former used to be tea shops and the later used to be some kind of station. Because of all this, the Taiwanese government and the locals have gone through great lengths to conserve it. It's why you'll see many of this street's shops are designed to accommodate the building's aesthetics rather the other way around. If you want more details about the area/street's history and the culture they're trying to preserve, there's actually a multi-storied museum along that street that you can go through (pictures below). I'd recommend it on the basis of rooftop access, so you can look out over the roofs and view the street below.
Another few reasons to visit besides the history is, as usual in this city, the food and the shopping. This area, and in particular this street, is most well known for its herbs, spices, dried and preserved goods. More specifically, it's also where you go if you want to find luxury dried and preserved goods, the kind of stuff that is given as presents for important formal and celebratory occasions. It's why you'll get such a rush around Chinese New Year, everyone's getting ready. Being Taiwan and originally a port location, it isn't surprising that a lot of the provided goods are dried seafood. I saw whole dried squid, stacks of dried sea cucumber, a variety of dried fish (from very large ones to piles of small fish that resembled smeltfish), seaweed, and shark fin and other such parts. This and the various herbal teas and certain kinds of mushrooms (really, they have ALL the mushrooms here) are considered to be excellent presents. In fact, my mom, aunt, and the auntie spent a few hours shopping and ended up with a supply of wood ear mushroom and packs of spices. You'll also find iron eggs, pickled ingredients, so much candy here, and dried fruits and veggies that you can just shovel into a small bag to purchase. My favorite is the strips of dried mango.
Additionally, shops like the Lantern Shop in the northern end (making traditional, handmade lanterns since 1905) and that one basket weaving place also prove that they're working hard not only to preserve the buildings, but also the old, traditional crafts. Meanwhile, more modern places like 豐味文創果品 (or Fflavour Taiwan) preserve visitors who need a break, a place to charge their electronics, or a spot to drop off tired kids supremely uninterested in shopping for dried, dead stuff. It's an organic fruit shop that is a stark contrast to the rest of the street in that can buy jewel-like, fresh fruit or get a dessert/drink/snack made of said fruit. Overall, I would highly recommend wandering through here and poking around if you're interested in history, food, or shopping.
