Old Street, Artistic Soul

The economic heart of New Taipei City’s easternmost district, the riverine town of Sanxia, has experienced fluctuating fortunes over the years. Growing from a Qing-era agricultural backwater to a key player in Taiwan’s textile industry, the town has most recently reinvented itself as an easy-access weekend travel destination for Taipei residents who like their history to come with a side serving of snackable treats and cultural flair.

With it’s red-brick façades and covered walkways, Sanxia Old Street is your quintessential Japanese-era shopping quarter. Built in 1915 (after occupying forces torched the town’s original buildings in retaliation for local resistance), its buildings are characterized by long, skinny interiors that stretch back three, four, even five times the storefront width. These days, it’s packed full of vendors selling snacks and knick-knacks to the mostly domestic crowds who flock here on the weekends.

Sanxia Qingshui Zushi Temple

Located just east of the Old Street’s northern tip is Sanxia’s grandest religious site, Sanxia Qingshui Zushi Temple. The temple was established in 1769 and is dedicated to a supernaturally talented Buddhist monk from the 11^th century who was deified after ending a drought. In the two-and-a-half centuries that have passed since its construction, the temple has been damaged and rebuilt three times (earthquake, fire, and World War II), most recently under the direction of local artist Li Mei-shu.

Thanks to Li’s efforts, the quality of craftsmanship on display holds its own even in a land with a startlingly high density of religious buildings. Every sculpted column, each cornice carving is exquisite. However, if you want a pointer on where to start your observations, keep an eye out for the twin pillars flanking the main hall – each boasts a total of fifty birds (many Taiwan-native), making them an I-spy delight for ornithologically inclined believers.

Sanxia Qingshui Zushi Temple
三峽清水祖師廟
Add: No. 1, Changfu St., Sanxia District, New Taipei City
(新北市三峽區長福街1號)
Tel: (02) 2671-1031
Website: www.longfuyan.org.tw (Chinese)

Jin San Xia

Every Old Street in Taiwan worth its salt has a signature specialty or two, and Sanxia is no exception. Here, the crown goes to bull horn croissants, a fusion of Chinese pastry and Filipino bread roll that, according to local lore, was invented by a Sanxia baker a couple of decades back. The name references the snack’s appearance – a kind of daintier croissant with both ends twisted inwards so that the shape resembles the curved horns of a water buffalo. Texturally, they’re nothing like the flaky French favorite; instead, the crispy exterior crumbles beneath the teeth to reveal a soft, doughy center that lands somewhere between bread and cake. Stalls and stores selling the pastries have proliferated, but Jin San Xia is a safe bet. Compared to its competitors, the store has a pared-down range of traditional flavors (plain, taro, chocolate, cream, melon bread), but consistently long lines attest to its popularity.

Jin San Xia
三峽金牛角
Add: No. 63, Minquan St., Sanxia District, New Taipei City
(新北市三峽區民權街63號)
Tel: (02) 8674-1226
Website: jsx.tw (Chinese)

Sanxia Indigo Dyeing Center

Ask any local for their impressions of Sanxia, and – aside from the aforementioned croissants – most will likely bring up the town’s indigo-dyeing heritage. And truth be told, the blue-tinted plant dye has a stronger claim to being Sanxia’s specialty product than horny bread.

The surrounding hills are ideal for the cultivation of Strobilanthes cusia – commonly known as Assam indigo – which, when processed, results in a deep-blue dye. This floral fecundity, combined with the town’s riverside location, meant that at one time indigo dyeing was Sanxia’s primary industry. Small vessels plied the waters, bringing in unprocessed cloth and taking blue-dyed masterpieces downstream to Taipei’s trading ports, until trends shifted towards Japanese- and European-style fabrics, causing rustic blue hues to fall out of favor.

In recent decades, interest in local heritage has seen the craft resurrected as part of Sanxia’s cultural-creative milieu, and the Sanxia Indigo Dyeing Center, a short walk northwest of the Old Street’s northern tip, plays an important role in keeping the art alive. Tucked into a building beside the town’s history museum, the center features a gallery-cum-store space and a workshop where visitors can try their hand at creative dyeing (walk-in visitors welcome between 10am and 4pm on weekends). It also hosts the town’s annual indigo festival each summer.

Sanxia Indigo Dyeing Center
三峽藍染展示中心
Add: No. 3, Ln. 20, Zhongshan Rd., Sanxia District, New Taipei City
(新北市三峽區中山路20巷3號)
Tel: (02) 8671-3108
FB: www.facebook.com/sanxia.indigo.dyeing

Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery

The Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery can be found incongruously occupying the ground floor of an apartment building, a 10min walk southeast from Sanxia Old Street. The gallery, which opened in 1995, commemorates the life and work of Li Mei-shu, a pioneer of Western realism in Taiwan. The Sanxia-born Li’s passion for painting carried him overseas to the prestigious Tokyo School of Fine Arts, where he studied under the tutelage of Saburo Okada.

Works on show come from different points in Li’s creative career, displaying an aesthetic evolution – early portraits teeter between expressionism and realism, while later pieces edge into hyperrealism. Li’s inspiration, however, was unwavering – he devoted his whole life to depicting the beauty of rural Taiwan. His wife and children appear again and again, as themselves or as characters in bucolic vignettes backdropped by Sanxia’s hills and streets.

In addition to leaving behind his personal artwork legacy, Li forever endeared himself to Sanxia residents for his dedication to the above-mentioned Sanxia Qingshui Zushi Temple. From age 46 until his death at 82, Li poured his heart and soul into beautifying the religious site, transforming it into a palace of Eastern art. A corner of the gallery showcases Li’s efforts in this arena – on display are some of his original concept sketches as well as photographs of how these were rendered in 3D by carpenters and stonemasons.

Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery
李梅樹紀念館
Add: No. 10, Ln. 43, Zhonghua Rd., Sanxia District, New Taipei City
(新北市三峽區中華路43巷10號)
Tel: (02) 2673-2333
Website: limeishu.org.tw
FB: www.facebook.com/limeishu.org

Su Chiung Art Museum

Halfway along Sanxia Old Street is a dusty blue wooden frontage set with oversized porthole windows, inside which is another of Sanxia’s artistic offerings – a gallery space dedicated to Wu Kuan-Te, the Su Chiung Art Museum. Wu, who has familial roots in the town, explores Daoist themes of nature and the universe in his pieces. Using sticks, stones, and other found objects, the artist etches intricate nature-inspired fantasy scenes into an oil-paint base, resulting in intricately detailed canvases that appear illuminated from within.

Wu’s large, often circular canvases fill the gallery’s front and rear rooms, while a connecting corridor contains exhibits introducing noteworthy former residents of Sanxia. There’s an antique dentist’s chair and jars filled with gruesomely genuine extractions salvaged from a dental clinic run a few stores down by the artist’s grandfather. A nearby alcove holds works by Wu Yao-zhong, student of Li Mei-shu and a talented artist of the post-war school of Taiwanese realism, whose political leanings saw him persecuted during the White Terror era. And if you wander through to the rear of the property and up the exterior steps, you’ll find a quiet coffee shop occupying the airy second-floor space – the perfect place to sit down with a sketchbook and scratch your own creative itch.

Su Chiung Art Museum
庶民美術館
Add: No. 110, Minquan St., Sanxia District, New Taipei City
(新北市三峽區民權街110號)
Tel: (02) 2671-2009
Website: limeishu.org.tw