Hsinchu City East Gate, Taiwan

One of the most beautiful historic gates in Taiwan

This gate is part of my Gates of Taiwan list.

Hsinchu City East Gate (Chinese 新竹東門城, pronounced Xīnzhú Dōngménchéng) also known as Yingxi gate (Chinese 迎曦門, pronounced Yíngxīmén, literally Sunshine receiving gate) was completed in 1827, when the Qing Dynasty ruled over Taiwan. It's today the only remaining historic gate in Hsinchu (there used to be 8 gates in the 19th century, four were big, four small). In 1901/02 the Japanese destroyed all of the gates except the East gate, because they were redesigning the city, widening some roads. Besides the gates, Hsinchu used to have a wall and a moat surrounding the city (Info: Source 1, Source 2). Today only the moat remains, which can be seen in the gate's vicinity. The whole area is transformed to a park and it's a popular spot for young Taiwanese to hang out, go for a walk, feed the fish. Same goes for the East Gate and the area nearby, which is used as a public square, where concerts are commonly held. I was lucky to see one, when I visited the city for the first time.

See my photos (from May 2010):

Young people listening to a live concert near the Yinxi gate.

Another angle on the gate.

The famous blogger posing near the gate (joking about the famous part).

A view through the gate.

The Hsinchu East Gate from the side.

One of my best shots of the gate. It was a great spring day, I only wish the sky had been blue.

The historic moat. I've seen fish and turtles inside.

This is really one of my favorite historic gates in Taiwan. And the whole area with the old moat and the park along the way is really beautiful. I hope I can explore more of Hsinchu in the future. See also Josh Fahler's East Gate HDR photo>>

[My TAIWAN page][My HSINCHU posts][All photos by MKL, 2010]

Gates of Taiwan

My list of Taiwan's historic and modern gates

This post aims to collect all photos of Taiwan's historic and modern gates together with paifangs (牌坊 or archway gates). You can participate by submitting your own photos to me. I would be happy, if you do, however if you decide to give me one of your photos, you thereby agree that I can watermark and adjust the photo the way I want. In return I will mention your name (or alias) and link to your blog or any other website you wish to. With that you pass the ownership of the photo to me and I reserve myself the right to use it for some of my other posts, if I choose to, but I won't use it for commercial purposes. This here is purely meant to show the beautiful gates of Taiwan to locals and foreigners. I want people to know more about the history and architecture of this beautiful country. If you chose to give me a photo, please contact me via Twitter under @NinoArt or send me an email at one_like_candy[at]yahoo.com. The final version of your photo will be 880px × 580px, so please send me a photo with a bigger size. Photos should be clear, taken during the day and need to show the whole gate or the main part from the front or back side. A blue sky would be nice, but it's not obligatory. I reserve the right to reject your photo, if I feel it's not good enough for my post. You can submit more photos, if you like.

The gates will be listed from the north to the south of Taiwan, basically from Keelung to Hengchun. I am the one that will decide which gate qualifies to be listed her, so please don't argue with me. If any of my information is wrong, please correct me in the comments below. This post will also have a Chinese version.

This is my list of Taiwan's historic and modern gates:

✰ Taipei City 台北市

Gate to the National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院大門. Completed in 1965. My article>>

Photo taken on 13th May, 2010 at 16:22, photographer: My Kafkaesque life.

Gate to the Grand Hotel 圓山大飯店大門. Completed in 1973. My article>>

Photo taken on 24th February, 2010 at 16:28, photographer: My Kafkaesque life.

Gate to the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠大門. Completed in 1969. My article>>

Photo taken on 18th July, 2010 at 16:38, photographer: Lily Chen.

Taipei Prefecture Capital North Gate 台北府城北門. Completed in 1884. My article>>

Photo taken on 18th July, 2010 at 17:51, photographer: Lily Chen.

Taipei Prefecture Capital East Gate 台北府城東門. Completed in 1879. My article>>

Photo taken on 24th February, 2010 at 15:41, photographer: My Kafkaesque life.

Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness 大中至正門. Completed in 1975. My article>>

Photo taken on 5th February, 2010 at 16:22, photographer: My Kafkaesque life.

✰ Hsinchu City 新竹市

Hsinchu City East Gate 新竹東門城. Completed in 1827. My post>>

Photo taken on 25th April, 2010 at 14:54, photographer: My Kafkaesque life.

✰ Kaohsiung City 高雄市

Old Fengshan City North Gate 鳳山縣舊城. Completed in 1826. My article>>

Photo taken on 9th May, 2010 at 13:46, photographer: My Kafkaesque life.

[My TAIPEI page][My TAIWAN page][All photographers credited]