← All old streets 
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Lively · Nantun District, Taichung
Nantun Old Street
南屯老街 · 犁頭店街
Taichung's oldest street, the 'Plough-shop Street'
⏱ 1–2 hours History buffsFoodiesFamiliesSlow travel
Food 2/3
Story 3/3
Buildings 2/3
Vendors 2/3
Crowds 2/3
The story
Nantun was once called Litoudian, 'plough-shop street', after the blacksmiths who forged farm tools for the surrounding paddies, making it one of the earliest market streets in the Taichung basin. Wanhe Temple, founded in the Yongzheng era of the Qing, anchors the street, and a blacksmith, tofu maker, rice-flour shop and herbalists still trade along its 200 metres. Every Dragon Boat Festival locals race in wooden clogs in a custom found nowhere else in Taiwan.
Getting there
- Where
- Wanhe Road / Nantun Road intersection (around Wanhe Temple), Nantun District, Taichung
- Getting there
- Bus from central Taichung to Wanhe Temple stop, or ~15 min drive from HSR Taichung Station
- Time needed
- 1–2 hours
- Best time
- Most distinctive during the Dragon Boat Festival "clog racing" (wooden-clog pangolin) event
Nearby old streets
- 4 km Shinseibashi-dori (Taichung Zhongshan Road) Taichung's Japanese-era 'Lily-of-the-valley Street', the old downtown's main drag Thriving
- 5 km Dali Old Street River landing where the Lin Shuangwen rebellion began Quiet
- 5 km Xitun Old Street The old Xidadun street and its 18th-century earth-god shrine Quiet
- 13 km Xinding Old Street (Shinmachi) A Japanese-flavoured stroll along Changhua's old moat Quiet