West Central Dist.

Transform Yourself Into a "Snail", Amble in the Quiet Lanes of the Busy City

Hele Plaza was the former site of Tainan’s Chinatown and was once one of Tainan’s most important commercial districts. It was later demolished and converted into a water park and opened on March 7, 2020. It is the largest water plaza in downtown Tainan and was praised by Forbes Magazine as one of the "seven most anticipated parks in the world".

The “Pan Gong Stone and Pan Pond” was originally the first entrance to the Confucius Temple site. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, Qing dynasty, Prefect Jiang Yuan-Shu renovated the entrance in the temple restoration project. He hired masons to carve a beautiful archway before shipping it to Tainan for erection. Amongst all Confucius temples in Taiwan, only the one in Taiwan has this pre-built archway. During the Japanese colonization, the stone archway was separated from the temple for building Nanmen Road.

Located in the alley near the Yeh Shyr-Tau Literary Memorial Museum, the Zexiantang Temple is like an unearthly space in the alley for its absolute serenity. The building is maintained in a classical style. On the white wall, wooden windows and doors in their natural color are embedded. Some green patterned bricks for ventilation are equipped as decorations. The layout of the worshipping hall is maintained exactly in the traditional style. Although it has been refurbished for several times since its completion in 1879, the appearance remains more or less the same as it was.

Built in 1861 at Zuoying Pu in Dongan Fang of Taiwan Prefecture, the Baoen Hall was a worship place of the Xiantiandao (Way of Former Heaven) sect of the Chinese religions of fasting. It was originally a shabby cottage and refurbished in 1866. For the permanent use of the facility, believers raised money to reconstruct the cottage into a brick and stone structure temple in 1888. In 1896, the Japanese colonial government expropriated the hall for building the Tainan Hospital.

After the Dutch built Fort Zeelandia in Anping in 1624, they decided to build a political and economic center Provintia (today’s Chihkan Tower) across the Taijian (called Chihkan by local plain indigenous peoples in that time) for the geopolitical reason. The Dutch also developed Chihkan Street (Rua Provintia) to start the commercial history of busy business in Tainan.

Speaking of Licence Art Gallery, people must have pass by this venue founded in 1996 on the first floor next to the busy Lily Fruit Store. As one of the venues of the Art Tainan exhibition in recent years, the galley has well-lighted and comfortable space where works, including paintings, cultures, photography, and new media, of celebrated domestic and foreign artists are displayed. It is a high-quality space for exhibiting contemporary art in Tainan.

Jointly designed by architects Joe Shih and Shigeru Ban Architects, Tainan Art Museum Building 2 is the work of Pritzker Architecture Prize recipient.  The design of the building drew inspiration from Delonix regia and its conspicuous pentagonal contours certainly helped to turn the architecture into a cultural landmark that embodies Tainan. The layered structure of different exhibition spaces coupled with the large fractal roof are the most prominent features of Tainan Art Museum Building 2.

The East Market on Qingnian Road first opened over a century ago in 1908, making its the grand-daddy of street markets.  The Fucheng Town God Temple and Dongyue Temple nearby as well as the traditional perception that the well-off frequented the East Market meant that it once thronged with beggars in earlier times. This led to East Market being also nicknamed “Hungry Square.”

The Guan-Di Temple of Ba-Ji-Jing was built during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. The current building you see is the result of rebuilding and extensions over the last century. It has since been designated as a historic city building. Inside the temple you will find door gods and frescoes painted by Pan Li-shui, winner of the Folk Heritage Art Awards. There are also calligraphy couplets by famous calligraphers including Chu Chiu-Ying and Huang Kuo-shu, plaques from the Qianlong Era, and clay god statues from old temples.