Taiwan (March 2025): Hsinchu City
and Around
To see the locations of
the places pictured below, click here. (A
Google map with red markers will open in a new tab.)
Changhe temple (新竹長和宮) and Shuixian temple (水仙宮), Hsinchu City:
These two temples stand
side-by-side. The Changhe temple, dedicated to Matsu,
was built first in 1742 on an important market street (Beimen
Old Street), where it served as a meeting place for shop owners, traders, and
sailors. Since then, it has been rebuilt and remodeled several times. The Shuixian
temple was built in 1863 on the right of the Changhe
temple (when looking at the facades of the two temples). It is dedicated to the
Water God Shuixian associated with the founder of the
Xia Dynasty. Shuixian, which had previously been
enshrined in a hall of the Changhe temple, was then
moved to the new temple.
- Changhe
temple.
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- Shuixian
temple.
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Historic Jinshi
house (國定古蹟-進士第), Hsinchu City:
The area around the Changhe and Shuixian temples is dotted
with crumbling Qing Dynasty buildings. One of them, the Jinshi
house, is relatively well preserved. It is the former residence of Zheng Yongxi
(1788-1858), the second son of a wealthy businessman named Zheng Chonhe. In
1823 Yongxi was the first resident of Taiwan to
receive the Jinshi (進士), the highest degree of the Chinese
imperial examination, hence the name of the house. He then became a politician
of the Qing Dynasty.
- Facade of the house.
- Wood carving below the eave of the facade.
- Paintings on the doors
of the Zheng family temple, located next to the Jinshi
house.
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Chenghuang temple (also known as the Hsinchu City God
temple), Hsinchu City:
The Chinese name of this
temple, 城隍爺, is pronounced ″chenghuang
ye″ and translates to ″city god″, hence the two names used in
English texts. The main deity is of course the City God, a kind of supernatural
magistrate who protects the city, helps its human officials to make the right
decisions, weighs the moral character of the city's inhabitants when they die,
and decides the kind of afterlife they deserve. Of the many (around 100) City
God temples in Taiwan, this one is considered one of the most important. Its
initial construction dates back to 1747, but most of its current structures
date from the restoration of 1924. It consists of several halls dedicated to
various Taoist and Buddhist deities, including 城隍夫人
(the ″Lady of the City God″), the City God's wife. Surrounded by
the Hsinchu's largest night market, the temple attracts a continuous flow of
worshippers and visitors.
- Entrance of the temple.
- Hall dedicated to the
City God.
- Hall dedicated to
Buddhism.
- Statues in the temple.
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- Portion of a ceiling.
- Carved stone walls.
Dongning temple, Hsinchu City:
This temple is primarily
a Buddhist temple with Ksitigarbha as its main deity.
It also enshrines other deities, both Buddhist and Taoist. The temple was
founded in 1821, but its current buildings date from 1954.
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Jhulien temple, Hsinchu City:
This is a popular
Buddhist temple, primarily dedicated to Guanyin. It dates back to 1781, but has
undergone several restorations since then. The most recent major restoration
occurred in 1958.
[Ancestral hall of the temple.]
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Confucius temple, Hsinchu City:
This elegant temple is a
true survivor. It was originally built in 1817 during the Qing Dynasty, near
the Chenghuang temple (see above). During the
Japanese occupation (1895-1945), it served as a barracks and a public school.
After Taiwan's return to the Republic of China in 1945, the Chinese National
Army stationed there for a time. The altar in its Dacheng
Hall (see below) was even used as a ping-pong table. In the 1950s, the Chenghuang and Confucius temples were surrounded by a
market. To allow for the extension of this market, demolition of the Confucius
temple was considered, but protests from local residents saved its two main
structures: using funds raised from market vendors in exchange to leases of the
temple land, the Dacheng Gate and Hall (see below)
were moved in 1958 to their current location, a quiet place next to a park.
This new site probably better fits the Confucian spirit than the former noisy
market area.
- Dacheng
Gate.
- Dacheng
Hall.
- Spirit tablets inside
the Dacheng Hall.
Putian temple, Hsinchu City:
Located south of downtown
Hsinchu, about 2.5km from the Hsinchu train station, this somewhat bizarre
temple was built in the early 1970s. Dominated by a giant statue of Guangong, its multi-story main building houses not only
prayer rooms, but also a sort of large, disused museum displaying numerous
artifacts, most of them covered in dust. Some are remarkably beautiful and seem
authentic, while others look like poor copies. Some other sections of the main
temple building are clearly abandoned and overgrown with weeds. Moreover, this
building is surrounded by what appears to be a poorly maintained park populated
with crumbling statues. Even the golden pagoda-shaped ghost money burner near
the entrance is unusual. Nevertheless, the temple attracts a continuous flow of
worshippers.
The main deity of this
temple is Guangong, a Chinese general named Guanyu
who lived in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries. He was later deified as Guangong (meaning Lord Guan) for his integrity and loyalty.
He is worshiped as a god of war, wealth, and loyalty in Taoism, Confucianism,
and Chinese Buddhism. As usual, several other deities are also worshipped in
the temple.
- Massive 36m-high seated
statue of Guangong on the roof of the temple's main
building, and golden ghost money burner outside. (Note Guangong's
thumb-up.)
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- Altar in the main hall
of the temple, with Guangong's statue on the right.
- Another altar with the
statue of Yue Lao, the god of love and marriage standing on the right.
- Shrine specifically
dedicated to Guanyin, outside the temple's main building. Guanyin represented
with red lipstick! Another oddity in the temple.
- Statues in another
shrine outside the temple's the main building.
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- Heads of statues in the
temple's museum.
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- Statues in the park,
below the temple. They face the giant statue of Guangong.
Like him, they all have their right thumbs up. (Do they suggest that the boss
should not be contradicted?)
Baozhong Yimin temple (褒忠亭義民廟), Xinpu, Hsinchu County:
Located about 8km
northeast of downtown Hsinchu, in Xinpu township,
this temple is a major center for the preservation of the Hakka culture in
Taiwan. The Hakka are a subgroup of the Han Chinese family, originally from the
northern Chinese provinces of Henan and Shanxi. Hakka migration to Taiwan began
in the 17th century. Today, the Taiwanese who self-identify as Hakka make up
just under 20% of the population, but this percentage is much higher in the Hsinchu county. Over time, the Taiwanese Hakka have maintained
and developed a strong identity, with their own dialects and culture.
The Baozhong
Yimin temple is mainly dedicated to the Hakka militiamen killed during the Lin
Shuangwen Rebellion of 1787-88. This rebellion, initially aimed at overthrowing
the Qing rule over the island, pitted two groups of Chinese immigrants in
Taiwan against each other. As the rebels threatened to invade their territory,
the Hakka assembled a volunteer militia to defend their land. They won the
battle, but some 200 of them perished. The bodies of the slain militiamen were
buried together at a place then named 褒忠 (pronounced ″baozhong″), which translates to ″praise
and loyalty″. The Baozhong Yimin temple was
built soon after in front of this grave. Yimin (義民) means ″righteous people″.
The original temple was destroyed in 1895 and a new temple, more or less the
one we can see today, was built on the same site in 1904. The Hakka come here
to venerate the Hakka warriors killed in several uprisings during the Qing era
and the Japanese occupation, symbolized in the temple by spirit tablets.
- Facade of the temple.
- In the courtyard of the
entrance hall looking back toward the temple's gate barely visible at the
center of the photo.
- Still in the entrance
hall, now looking in the opposite direction toward the shrine where the Yimin
spirit tablet is displayed.
- Closeup of the Yimin
spirit tablet.
- Another shrine with
tablets in the temple.
- Beautiful mural in the
temple.
- Statues of a dragon in
a pond and a buffalo, in a garden adjacent to the temple. The entire garden is
a little odd, as it feels out of step with the gravity of the temple.
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Xinpu family ancestral shrines, Hsinchu
county:
The small historic center of the Xinpu township (located about 4.5km east of the Baozhong Yimin temple) features an unusual density of
ancestral shrines dating from the 19th century (Qing dynasty). Each shrine is a
small temple dedicated to the ancestors of a particular family. It is a place
where living members of that family can venerate their ancestors, symbolized by
spirit tablets. However, these shrines are still private today and are often
closed.
To see the precise locations of the 7
shrines pictured below, click here. (A Google map with purple markers
will open in a new tab.)
- Shrine of the Zhang
family.
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- Shrine of the Liu
family.
- Shrine of the Pan
family.
- Shrine of the Chu
family.
- Shrine of the Chen
family.
- Shrine of the Fan
family.
- Shrine of the Lin
family.
Beipu, Hsinchu county:
Located about 15km
southeast of downtown Hsinchu, the small town of Beipu
is another center of Hakka culture. It is the site of the 1907 Hoppo Uprising, the first instance of an armed local
uprising against the Japanese rule in Taiwan. The insurgents were a group of
Hakka from Hoppo (present-day Beipu)
supported by local Saisiyat aboriginal people.
Japanese authorities killed more than 100 insurgents.
- Citian temple. Built in
the mid-19th century, this temple is primarily dedicated to Guanyin.
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- Tianshui
Hall (北埔姜屋天水堂) built around 1835 by Jiang Xiuluan, a 5th-rank official of the Qing Dynasty
and a landowner. Jiang Xiuluan was instrumental in the development of the Jin
Guang Fu company, a joint tea venture between Hakka and Hokkien
people, a rare example of cooperation between these two groups of Han settlers
at the time. The Tianshui Hall sits next to a
building of this company dating from the same period, known as the Jin Guang Fu
Hall.
- Zongshu
Hall (忠恕堂). This traditional three-hall house was
built in 1922 by the son of Zeng Xuexi, who was the first resident of Beipu to pass the Chinese imperial examination. Renovated
in the early 2000s, it is now houses a cultural foundation preserving Hakka
culture.
- Jiang family temple (姜氏家廟) built in 1924. The Jiang family were
wealthy Beipu tea merchants. During the Pacific War,
this temple was requisitioned as a warehouse for the Japanese military and a
machine gun was installed on its roof for its defense. The temple was damaged
again in the 1999 earthquake. Its most recent restoration dates from January
2016.
