During the 11-day trip to Taipei in early March, I basically stayed in Taipei City. Thanks to the enthusiastic Taiwanese friends, I had the opportunity to walk into Hsinchu, to the Neiwan business district, and experience the Hakka culture.


Neiwan is located in Hengshan Township, Hsinchu County, where the Hakka people live. In recent years, with the nostalgic feeling of the old street, including Neiwan Station, Neiwan Theater and Neiwan Suspension Bridge, it has become a tourist attraction in Hsinchu. In addition to the traditional street house buildings, Neiwan Old Street also has the friendly auntie, asan brother, and naughty robots drawn by the cartoonist Liu Xingqin, welcoming tourists on both sides of the street.
/
Neiwan Old Street Cultural Tour


Q/ Self-guided travel, how to get to Neiwan Station?

Suggestion 1/ Take the train to Hsinchu Railway Station, and take the small train from Hsinchu Railway Station to Neiwan Station to Neiwan Station.
Suggestion 2/ You can take the Taiwan Railway to Hsinchu Railway Station, and then take the small train from Hsinchu Railway Station to Neiwan. The terminal is Neiwan, Yinghua Village

Q/ Arrive at the Neiwan shopping district, how should I go shopping?
A/ You can go to the entrance of the parking lot to get a guide map of Hsinchu Neiwan Commercial District

Top 20 Attractions in Hsinchu Neiwan Commercial District
01. Neiwan Catholic Church
02. Forestry Exhibition Hall
03. Manga Neiwan Village
04. Neiwan Theater
05. Neiwan Station
06. Neiwan Elementary School
07. Train scale station and railway turntable
08. Neiwan Suspension Bridge
09. Nanping Shuizhen Trail (Tai Ya Mi Road, Lovers Valley Trail)
10. Nanping Ancient Road (Neifeng Road)
11. Water Park
12. Neiwan Animation Park
13. Heping Old Street
14. Zhuangtou Bogong Temple
15. Guangji Palace
16. Neiwan Police Station
17. Train water station
18. Dongwoxi firefly ecological area (Xinghai firefly area)
19. Trojan Horse Road Ruins
20. Dragon Climbing Suspension Bridge



There are as many as 20 tourist attractions in Neiwan Old Street. Among them, Heping Old Street (Neiwan Old Street) is very lively. It is a small town street full of nostalgia, and it is also a main commercial street. The traditional old street houses and various Hakka food stalls on both sides of the old street give this place a strong and simple atmosphere, allowing tourists to fully experience the Hakka culture and customs of Neiwan.
/
Inner love, Hakka heart



Neiwan Theater, located in the business district, was built in the 1950s and is a Japanese-style building with deep historical significance. At the beginning, Neiwan became a prosperous transportation transshipment center based on coal mines and logging industries. Its prosperity earned it the nickname of "Little Shanghai". With the decline of the industry, the Neiwan Theater was once abandoned, and occasionally film crews came here for filming, and "Green Riverside Grass" is one of them.
/
Neiwan Theater



When traveling to an unfamiliar environment, the most direct cultural experience is to eat local traditional food. There are many local residents setting up stalls in the old street, selling a variety of Neiwan snacks and traditional Hakka delicacies. Among them, the must-try wild ginger flower meat dumplings, purple jade vegetable buns, Hakka lei tea and Hakka mochi, etc. The food with Hakka flavor has become the unique charm of Neiwan Old Street.
/
Hakka Food Hakka Love



I tasted the Hakka vegetable buns (kueh) that day. The green wormwood skin made of glutinous rice has a tender and chewy texture, and the salty dried radish (preserved radish) inside is even more salty and delicious. Woolen cloth! Love it! ??????????



If you arrive in Neiwan by small train, then the first scenic spot in Neiwan you arrive at is Neiwan Station. Neiwan Station is in the Neiwan business district, so you can start a slow tour of Neiwan after getting off the station. I arrived in Neiwan in the car of a Taiwanese friend, so I can only go here for sightseeing, so I can’t experience the fun of arriving in Neiwan by train, and I can’t provide more information and itinerary details about the Neiwan train.
/
Neiwan Station



Neiwan Station was opened in the 1950s, during the period when Neiwan’s logging and coal mining industries were booming, and the completion of the station pushed the speed of Neiwan’s development to its peak. Neiwan Station still retains its unique architectural style of the 1950s. The small Neiwan Station is simple and unpretentious, but it has a special style.
/
Simple town style



The Neiwan Suspension Bridge is one of the popular Neiwan attractions. This suspension bridge has a total length of about 147 meters. It crosses the suspension bridge and is full of trees along the way. It is the favorite route of many mountain hikers. Maybe you would say that it’s just a suspension bridge, is it that special? Honestly, there's nothing special about it. But as long as you slow down your pace, broaden your vision, and settle your mind, then you will discover the beauty of nature. The other end of the Neiwan Suspension Bridge is like a hidden small village, another village with hidden willows and bright flowers!
/


When you come to Neiwan Old Street, in addition to tasting various Hakka delicacies, you must come to experience the fun of grinding tea! As a Hakka, I can only see the flowers in the fog of my family's culture. After all, in Malaysia, the Hakka culture has gradually lost its color. Unfortunately, I don't even understand Hakka. In the long-standing traditional culture, Lei Cha is a unique food culture of the Hakka people. It is said that Lei Cha has the effect of detoxification. It can be used for food and medicine; it can quench thirst and satisfy hunger.
/
The unique food culture of Hakka Lei Cha



As far as I can remember, I have only eaten Lei Cha twice, and it was salty and bitter. Therefore, in my opinion, Lei Cha is eaten with rice, it is salty, bitter, astringent and green. But after tasting the Hakka Lei Cha in Neiwan, it changed my mind a lot. It turned out that Lei Cha can be cold, sweet, drinkable, or a delicious and charming drink! The overall taste is as sweet as drinking a cup of thick matcha.
/
Sweet Lei Cha is so charming



This trip to Taipei has benefited me a lot, and the most memorable thing for me is this trip to Neiwan. It was the first time in my life that I personally ground Leicha, how touched I was! The source of the emotion may be related to the Hakka affection flowing in the blood.



This Azhulei tea store is run by an Indonesian lady who married to Taiwan. She is a Hakka herself and has been in Taiwan for a long time, so she is already a Taiwanese. Since Indonesia and Malaysia are neighbors, it is natural to have an intimacy with this big sister Azhu. A few words of greetings from my native dialect, Apa Khabar (how are you?) and Terima Kasih (thank you) are enough to shock my Taiwanese friend! Because he did not expect that Indonesian and Malay are basically the same! Moreover, Malaysian Chinese are generally proficient in at least three languages, which is the characteristic of our Malaysian Chinese.



I stayed in the inner bay for about two hours. Although I didn't go to every scenic spot, the slow pace made me indulge in the simple style of the inner bay. I like the simplicity of Neiwan Old Street, the old street houses here, the humanities and cultural atmosphere here, and I prefer to hide in this majestic and green nature. If I have another chance next time, I would like to go back to the old urban area of ​​Neiwan.