Storehouse of Memories

Several of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, including the Kavalan, the Sakizaya, the Amis, and the Truku, settled in Xincheng and lived side by side. There were conflicts, alliances, and compromises. Xincheng was formerly known as To-lô-buán in Taiwanese Hokkien, and Daluwan or Duo­luo­man in Mandarin.

Goldrush days

Xincheng has alluvial gold, but not many people know about it. According to historical records, people began to come here to pan for gold in the 17th century. In the era of Japanese rule a team of mining prospectors confirmed that the main gold vein was located in the middle reaches of the Liwu River. After World War II, private interests acquired mining rights at Mt. Pingfeng from the Vocational Assistance Commission for Retired Servicemen (now the Veterans Affairs Council), but they ceased operations there in 1991 because their earnings no longer covered their costs. 

“If I don’t go in, my whole family will die. If I do go in, only I will die.” This was a saying that circulated among early generations of gold seekers. Yang Wenqin, founder of the Jia Xing ice cafe, explains that people looking for gold had to go deep into the mountains for up to a month at a time. In winter the weather there was very cold and sometimes there would even be frost on the ground, so if someone spent all day soaking in the icy Liwu River panning for gold, their skin would often be black all over when returning to the riverbank. Despite the hardship, however, they chose to gamble on their gold dreams coming true.

Yang Wenqin and his wife in front of Sincheng Photo Studio.

Yang Wenqin still has some alluvial gold mixed with black sand, a keepsake of his earlier life.

Things change and people move

Gold panning at Xincheng attracted many outsiders who dreamed of striking it rich. In its heyday, the town had three taverns, two hostels, and a theater. Gold prospectors would squander their hard-earned money on drink and other entertainments, leaving their cash behind in Xincheng.

In 1986, Taroko National Park was established, and consequently the mineral veins in the mountains were incorporated into the protected area and mining was prohibited. Today the Liwu River is managed by the Water Resources Agency, and panning for gold is still banned, drawing the curtain on 400 years of prospecting. The taverns and theater went out of business long ago, becoming part of history.

In the past, Xincheng was also at the hub of a number of transportation routes. But after Provincial Highway 9 was rerouted, vehicles traveling between Hualien County and Northern Taiwan began bypassing Xincheng, bringing an end to the flood of visitors to Xincheng’s old main street, which was part of highway in days gone by, and the town became a backwater.

The 2024 Hualien earthquake caused a downturn in tourism to Xincheng.

A new look for Xincheng

After its boom years, Xincheng became a somewhat desolate place. However, today there is group of people who are very attached to Xincheng and have new ideas for its future, that are setting down roots in the town’s old streets.

Travelers heading to places like Hualien’s Taroko Gorge can take a train to Xincheng Taroko Station, the closest train station to Taroko National Park. The station’s V-shaped façade was inspired by the power of the Liwu River as it cut through the land to form the majestic gorge. The station’s name plaque features calligraphy by the famous artist Chu Chen-nan. (Taiwan Panorama wrote a special report on Chu Chen-nan in May 2020.)

Wandering into the old streets of Xincheng, we find the Xincheng Catholic Church, on whose grounds are preserved the remains of a Japanese Shinto shrine that preceded it, built to commemorate the victims of the Xincheng Incident and Truku War, which happened more than a century ago during the era of Japanese rule. Today the Virgin Mary presides over the ruins of the shrine and lends her protection to people who go to pray there.

It is also fashionable for visitors to come to the rustic front entrance of the SinCheng Photo Studio, located in a 140-year-old historic building, to take Instagram-worthy photos, then go next door to buy a bottle of Jia Xing Lemon Juice. Watson Yang, the second-­generation proprietor of the Jia Xing ice cafe, where the lemon juice is a house specialty, has renovated the photo studio and opened it to the public free of charge.

Another interesting place is the Etude Bookstore, where you can only borrow books but can’t buy them. Etude founder Hu Wen-wei created the shop to provide a place where kids on the local elementary school baseball team, which he organized, could hang out and study. Hu has also remodeled the old Taiwan Power Company building, which had stood idle for a decade, into the Shanhai Department Store. It is a multi-use space with a cultural and creative character that brings together select products, foods and beverages, and art displays in one location.

People like Yang and Hu, along with others who are working together to revive local industries, are helping Xincheng to write a new page in its history and increase its attractiveness to tourist visitors.

Travelers take a commemorative photo with a sign reading “Xincheng.”

The Bantianhong Beef Noodle Shop serves unique Xincheng suancai (fermented mustard greens) with rice.

Watson Yang, second-generation proprietor of the Jia Xing ice cafe, hopes that visitors to Xincheng will not only buy his shop’s famous lemon juice, but also come away with memories of the town itself.

Jia Xing’s lemon juice and kumquat juice, with their signature sour and sweet flavor, are must-buy souvenir gifts for visitors to Xincheng.

Xincheng produces many agricultural products with a distinctive local character, including millet, red quinoa, and mountain litsea.

“Out of love, I ask You to help me move forward and follow in the wake of my brothers and sisters as well as the whole universe, and with courage and sincerity to seek You out in the mountains.” —“Mountain Pilgrims’ Prayer” posted at Xincheng Catholic Church

The shape of Xincheng Catholic Church is reminiscent of Noah’s Ark.

The sacred Xincheng Catholic Church

Visiting Xincheng Catholic Church, the torii gate from the old Japanese Shinto shrine stands tall at the entrance, serving as a portal to this path of homage.

The walls of the church are covered with green vines, and the main building, built in the shape of Noah’s Ark, has a simple refinement. Fourteen hand-crafted stained-glass windows in the church were ordered specially from his native Switzerland by the missionary Father Gabriel Délèze. If you look closely, you will see that in front of the knee of the Virgin Mary in one of the panels there is a pearl in the shape of Taiwan.

The remains of a historic Japanese Shinto shrine are preserved on the grounds of Xincheng Catholic Church.

Witness to history, praying for peace

The Congregation of Great Saint Bernard, based in Switzerland, purchased the ruins of the Xincheng Shinto Shrine in 1964 in order to build a church and a hostel for priests. In September of 1976 Fr. Délèze arrived in Hualien and discovered that the site was once a bloody battleground and contained a mass grave, and that traditional customs discouraged people from entering. But he felt that the site was historically and culturally important, and he intervened with the county government to preserve the torii (Japanese gate), the ishitōrō (stone lanterns), the tamagaki (fence surrounding the main hall), the aragaki (wall around the grounds), and the memorial to the 13 Japanese soldiers killed in the Xincheng Incident. At the same time, he replaced the crumbling main hall of the Shinto shrine with a shrine to the Virgin Mary. In 2005, the shrine site was listed as a county historic site.

Liu Hui-chen, a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at National Dong Hwa University, has been assisting Délèze for over a decade to organize historical documents and to apply to the county government to have the church and priests’ hostel certified as historic buildings.

She notes that she is currently writing an academic paper on the Xincheng Incident, and she and Délèze have together interviewed Truku elders in order to compare their stories with historical materials and photographs and put the Xincheng Incident into a proper historical perspective. In the future she plans to begin documenting the story of the work done in the area by the Congregation of Great Saint Bernard over the last 60-plus years, so that this history is not forgotten. Amidst the passage of time, the Catholic church is still bringing warmth to this little town. (For more on Father Gabriel Délèze, see the article in the October 2019 issue of Taiwan Panorama.) 

Father Gabriel Délèze has ten cats. Here he is shown holding the camera-shy Binggan (“Cookie”), while Fengye (“Maple Leaf ”) looks on, cool as a cucumber.

Father Délèze specially ordered custom-made stained-glass windows directly from Switzerland for Xincheng Catholic Church.

“When people grow up, everything changes.” —from the film Eternal Summer. 

Old-fashioned camera flashguns, old photographs, a stereo for playing vinyl records…. The many dated artifacts in the SinCheng Photo Studio bring back memories.

New memories at SinCheng Photo Studio

SinCheng Photo Studio, at 18 Bo’ai Street, is located in an old building with 140 years of history behind it. Inside the studio, if you lift your head and look up you will see four vertical wooden supports made of southern yellow pine and horizontal steel beams holding up a pitched roof lined with straw. The structure has a thoroughly antique ambience.

Joy Yen, the manager of the photo studio, emphasizes: “The new sign hung on the building reproduces the old one, continuing to use the ancient Chinese character for guan [‘studio’ or ‘hall’] that was originally used for the building. Rather than use the character 館, as is used in the word for ‘restaurant,’ which has the ‘food’ radical, shi [食], instead it uses the old variant 舘, which has the ‘house’ radical, she [舍], because this is a house and not a restaurant.”

There is a photo booth in the building, and despite the fact that this produces instant photos, Yen still provides the professional services of “communication, dressing up, and practice” that were specialties of the old photo studio. Yen says that when people came to the old studio for portraits, the photographer would be sure to provide services and suggest ways to enrich the shots, and she helps people do the same with the photo booth.

The photo studio offers DIY postcards that are finally embossed with a metal stamp.

Instant photos taken by this photo booth cost NT$150 a go. SinCheng Photo Studio manager Joy Yen (right) provides the services of “communication, dressing up, and practice” that were once offered by traditional portrait studio photographers.

Everyone a passing guest

Lin Canzhen and Cai Jinlian, the husband-and-wife team who were the first generation to operate the studio, managed it for over 60 years. They used a German-made six-inch camera to capture portraits of Japanese soldiers and students in Xincheng. They also spent time at Taroko Gorge, recording precious memories for travelers.

Over time the studio building fell into disrepair, until it was leased by Watson Yang, second-generation proprietor of the Jia Xing ice cafe. With the agreement of the Lin family’s descendants, in December of 2023 he launched a major renovation project.

“I am a native of Xincheng, and I was more emotional about the decline of the town than other people,” says Yang, adding: “I hope that people who come to Xincheng will not only buy lemon juice, but will also come away with memories of the town itself.”

Why does Yang seem so concerned? “Because no one can fully hold on to this space.” He relates that Xincheng has always been a place that people pass through, with folks coming and going and everyone being like a transitory guest. For example, where are the original owners of this 140-year-old building? People of our generation, he says, can only play the role of successors to inherit the accumulated experiences of the town and pass them on to future generations, so he wants every traveler who comes to the photo studio to leave with beautiful recollections and emotions.

The photo studio has a straw-lined roof still preserved from over a century ago.

Serendipitous sweet and sour juice

The lemon juice sold at Jia Xing is a must-buy for travelers. It all goes back to the Zhicheng Ice Company, which Yang Wenqin founded 67 years ago with money borrowed from a rotating credit association. When it started, its main business was wholesale ice cubes and shaved ice treats.

Jia Xing Lemon Juice has an excellent reputation. Generally lemon juice is made by cutting lemons in half and squeezing the juice out of the pulp, then adding sugar and ice cubes. But Jia Xing Lemon Juice is made by juicing whole lemons. Watson Yang reveals that his father, perhaps without thinking too much about it, was worried that customers would find his lemon juice too sour, so he added several drops of U Chiou condensed milk, which happened to be on hand, to balance it out. He thereby stumbled upon the sour–sweet signature flavor of Jia Xing Lemon Juice. This product has even attracted the attention of 7-Eleven and is sold at the convenience store chain.

Joy Yen says that in fact Xincheng produces a great variety of agricultural products. Thanks to the fertile sandy soil, the crops grown here, such as Tainung No. 9 peanuts, mustard greens to be fermented to make suancai, and yams, are all of high quality. Even before they go on sale to the public, they are all bought up in advance by wholesalers.

Yen suggests people stop in at the Bantianhong Beef Noodle Shop to try their unique Xincheng suancai with rice or suancai with noodles. The fermented mustard greens are produced locally. Visitors can also shop for souvenir gifts at the Shanhai Department Store.

Etude Bookstore does not sell books, but only lends them out.

After standing idle for ten years, the old Taiwan Power Company building has been converted into the Shanhai Department Store, which has a strong cultural and creative character.

Surrounded by mountains and sea

People are often unaware that one can see the ocean from Xincheng. In fact, from Xincheng Old Street it takes less than ten minutes by car to reach Manbo Beach and Yueya Bay.

They say there is a kind of blue called “Hua­lien blue”—the blue of the sea and the sky…. Here in Hua­lien, the beautiful Pacific Ocean is not far away, majestic Taroko Gorge is not far away, and once-forgotten Xincheng is not far away. They really do deserve to be visited. 

The beach at Xincheng is a great place to have fun playing in the water and sand.