An Insider’s Guide to Taoyuan: Historic Daxi, Soaring Waterfalls, and Busy Night Markets
While Taoyuan may be best known for the Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan’s gateway to the world, the county is also filled with history, culture, and stunning waterfalls, along with delicious cuisine.
The mountains of Fuxing District are home to the impressive Xiao Wulai Waterfall, which is likely Northern Taiwan’s second most popular waterfall after Shifen Waterfall in New Taipei’s Pingxi District. Attractions in the Xiao Wulai Scenic Area include a skywalk, suspension bridges and hiking trails.
Nearby, the historic town of Daxi is home to well-preserved old streets, local delicacies, and the educational Daxi Tea Factory, which is one of the island’s best destinations for tea-based eco-tourism.
Lastly, the not-so-small city of Zhongli is home to the impressively busy Zhongli Night Market (one of our picks for Taiwan’s top 5 night markets), where it’s easy to feel like you’re just a regular visitor due to its lack of foreign tourists compared to Taipei.
Xiao Wulai Scenic Area: Xiao Wulai Skywalk & Xiao Wulai Waterfall
Located in the Xiao Wulai Scenic Area, the Xiao Wulai Skywalk is an 11-meter-long glass-bottomed transparent platform that offers a heart-stopping, panoramic view of the majestic Xiao Wulai Waterfall.
Suspended 70 meters above the ground, the platform offers a unique bird’s-eye perspective on this massive waterfall. This reinforced glass platform extends out in front of the waterfall’s edge, letting you gaze directly at the cascading water as it plunges into the pool below. The platform’s minimalist design perfectly complements the natural beauty surrounding it.
While in the area, be sure to check out one of the longest rope bridges in Taiwan, the newly opened Xiao Wulai Sky Rope Bridge. The bridge spans 70-meters from side-to-side but is only 3 feet wide—so narrow, in fact, that only one person may pass at a time. It’s the perfect follow-up thrill to the Xiao Wulai Skywalk.
The Xiao Wulai Scenic Area is also home to other hiking paths, and the nearby area features several indigenous restaurants and cafes.
Daxi Old Street
Daxi Old Street is a well-preserved old street known for its Baroque-style washed stone facades decorated with beautiful carvings of birds, animals, flowers and plants.
The area’s history dates back to the late Qing Dynasty when booming trade in camphor and tea—resources sourced from the mountains—led many merchants and traders to set up shop in this strategic location. Thus, the first settlement in Taoyuan was born.
Remnants of Daxi’s illustrious past can still be witnessed in the traditional wooden furniture shops scattered around town. But, the majority of storefronts now belong to specialty shops and boutiques which hang their names on well-crafted wooden signs.
Daxi Old Street isn’t without its well-known local delicacies, be sure to try the following: Daxi’s famous version of sweet potato cake, locally referred to as “moonlight cakes”, local dried bean curd, and malt peanut candy.
Tsai Peanut Candy (Daxi)
Tsai Peanut Candy is one of the famous food stands on Daxi Old Street. Don’t be surprised if you have to stand in line to get a package of this simple 2-ingredient delicacy made of peanuts and malt.
Since the candy is made on the spot you can actually learn how the candy is made while you wait. The peanut powder is first prepared by frying, cooling, peeling and crushing the peanuts, and then adding a little sugar to balance the taste. It is then mixed with malt syrup and rolled several times into a solid form, upon which it is ready to be sold.
Currently run by second-generation candy-maker Tsai Ji, the shop has quite the charming backstory. It turns out Tsai Ji quit his job to learn the art of malt peanut candy from his father. After several years of hard work, he was finally successful enough to be able to support himself by opening his own store.
Today, his insistence on hard-work and selling freshly made candy each day—being freshly made ensures the candy is delicious and non-sticky—has won him the adoration of tourists and the local media.
Daxi Tea Factory
Run by the Taiwan Tea Corporation, the Daxi Tea Factory is a relatively new eco-tourism destination that not only preserves historic machinery and tells the story of Daxi’s tea culture, but also serves as a fully-featured center for tea-tourism.
Originally known as the Jiaoban Factory, the Daxi Tea Factory was once a bustling regional hub for black tea production and one of Taiwan’s most advanced tea factories at the time. It operated for over 80 years before being reinvented as a tourism destination just over a decade ago.
Renovations have maintained the factory’s historic charm and preserved many of its original industrial spaces. The aged brickwork, mortise-and-tenon-joint-supported cypress ceilings, and polished stone floors are all details which speak to the factory’s illustrious past. Simultaneously, strategically-placed modern exhibition spaces and shopping areas balance the authentic industrial ambience with a disarming coziness.
Inside the tea factory, a shop showcases local tea products, and various educational exhibitions allow visitors to learn about tea culture and tea processing.
Zhongli Night Market
Zhongli Night Market is one of the most popular evening destinations in Taoyuan and one of our picks for Taiwan’s top 5 night markets. With over 475 registered stands lined up in three aisles, the market offers hours of food-based entertainment.
Every evening around 5 PM, the night market’s vendors gather on this bustling street in the heart of Zhongli and begin to set up shop. The crowds here are mostly local, including students from nearby universities and visitors from neighboring towns—don’t expect to see as many international tourists as in the night markets of Taipei.
The market is renowned for its solid selection of Taiwanese street food. The night market has stands that sell everything, from grilled meats to seafood, as well as traditional Taiwanese snacks like stinky tofu and oyster omelets. We recommend trying the local favorite “Dazhong Luwei”, a braised-food stall which is said to be one of the best in Taoyuan.
