Shenkeng

Shēnkēng (深坑), literally “deep pit”, is a small district southeast of Taipei, named for the valley enclosed by mountains on nearly all sides. During the Qing dynasty, its position at the head of navigation on the Jingmei River made it a transshipment point for tea, dye, and camphor carried down from Shiding, Pingxi, and Pinglin.

The district is now synonymous with tofu. Local producers attribute the quality of their tofu to iron-free spring water and adherence to traditional salt-brine methods with charcoal heating, yielding a tender product with a slightly smoky character. Shenkeng Old Street, with its Japanese colonial era red brick arcades, draws weekend crowds from Taipei for tofu in every form: stinky, grilled, steamed, in soup, and so on. Traditional sanheyuan residences survive nearby, including the Huang Family Yong’an Residence, a municipal monument completed in 1915 with timber shipped from China.