Lukang Old Street 鹿港老街

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Lukang Old Street is one of the biggest and best old streets in Taiwan. Not only is it full of historical buildings, but it also has some of the most distinctive shopping and food choices.  During the Dutch and Qing eras of Taiwan, it was the most populous city and most important trading port in central Taiwan. There are more historical buildings here than anywhere in Taiwan except Tainan. Now the area is a tourist shopping district, famous for traditional crafts and foods such as oyster omelets, shrimp balls, taro cakes, and meat buns.

Background:
Lukang (aka Lugang) literally means "deer port" referring to the deer skin trade which was popular during the Dutch era in Taiwan. During the Qing Dynasty, the city became an important trading port, because of the depth of the water and the fact that it was closer to Fujian province than other cities in Taiwan. The main product shipped to Fujian was rice. In the 1800s, Lukang was Taiwan's second largest city, with as many as 20,000 residents, even more than Banka (modern day Taipei) and second only to Tainan. 
Later on the port began to silt in, and the railroad bypassed the city, meaning that economic activity here  went down. However because the city has changed so little in the past 200 years, it has become a cultural relic preserved from the past. The city also has over 200 temples. The main streets here are Yaolin Street (瑤林街) and Putou Street (埔頭街), but "Lukang Old Street" encompasses basically the entire township of Lukang.
​It is now one of the most popular old streets in Taiwan and is very bust on weekends and holidays.

Price:
Free

Hours:
About 10 AM to 6 PM

How to get there:
By Car/Scooter: From Changhua City, take highway 142 west to Lukang. There is paid public parking nearby.
By Bus: From Changhua TRA station, take bus 6901 or 6900 to Lukang Old Street station. It takes about 40 minutes.

Map:
​Please see below:

Our Journey:

We have been to Lukang three times. Every time has been a fun and magical experience. The best part is being immersed in the history and culture of old Taiwan. I also feel like the old street has the best selection of historical art and crafts.

Map of the old street area, with literally hundreds of historical buildings to explore. 

The start of our journey on a bright morning.

Minzu Street with traditional stone road. 

The intersection of Minzu Street and Daming Road has some of the best food in Lukang, and there are also many shops here to explore.

Basically every shop here sells food.

And there is lots of outdoor seating.

Waiting for our ice jelly to come.

Ice jelly is the specialty here.

A row of historical buildings, very well preserved.

A gateway to Jingling Temple.

More old buildings.

Modern take on old Taiwan architecture. 

More food options down this part of the street.

10 NT sushi.

Bento shop.

A vegetable market-like area.

Another old alleyway.

More photos of old buildings above.

Even more old buildings I saw as we walked through the alleyways here.

Finally we made it to Yaolin Street, and it started to get really crowded.

Map of the Yaolin Street area.

Sausages for sale.

Old wooden doorway.

Ancient Banbian half-sided well built by the family that lives here, but was willing to share the water with other locals.

Historical summary of the half-sided well.

More photos of the houses near the half-sided well above.

Arts and crafts for sale.

Tea shop.

Handbag store.

Another map of the area.

Massage tools.

More crafts and braised goods.

Another view of the street.

Fan shop.

Traditional fans.

Trinkets.

Shoe store.

More further down the street.

More photos of the street above.

Traditional Chinese clothing store.

Not sure what these are.

A small temple.

Ice cream shop.

And it was some good ice cream.

"Flour tea"

Inside this flour tea shop they also sell painted fans.

You can have some of these fans DIYed to what you want.

I had two of these custom made beforehand and sent them to my family.

More fans and trinkets here.

And paintings.

Another fan.

More fans.

About in the middle of the street you will come to Yaolin Square.

There was a mini amusement park here when we went.

This is the Lukang Literary arts and cultural center. 

Further down the street becomes Putou Street.

Huge flip flops.

More sausage.

This time I bought one.

More food options down the street like robin eggs.

Matsu temple at the end of the street.

Getting more packed the closer to Minsheng Road we get.

Trinkets and food.

Taro smoothie.

Buddhist charms.

Finally made it to Minsheng Street.

This place is packed too.

More photos of Putou Street and Minsheng Street above.

Famous taro cakes and other confections here.

Taro cakes.

These were pretty good.

Oyster omelet and other choices here. 

More restaurants along this street.

Historical canon.

Small temple here.

The intersection of Zhongshan Road and Minsheng Road is also busy.

And there is a rickshaw service here.

More food options.

The entire town is a pedestrian shopping area.

A mystery museum.

10 NT store.

Lukang City God Temple.

Another view of the city god temple.

Fried shrimp balls. 

More photos of the area above.

More old buildings.

Looking down the street.

Dilapidated house.

Another historical building closed when we were there. 

More photos of the alleyways.

Back to where we started at sunset.

Still lots of people eating here.

Gift shop with local delicacies.

Another view of the gift shop that we bought things for relatives in.

The full moon during the double ten day holiday.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more blogs on the old streets of Taiwan to come!

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