New Taipei City Travel

Manufacturing of Barbie dolls at Taishan’s Meining Workshop made the district known as “Barbie’s hometown.” The production lines are gone, but Meining’s past lives on at this tourism factory.

Due to the increasing number of pilgrims at Taishan Up Temple and the inconvenience faced by pilgrims when hiking up the mountain, Yung-lai Huang and Wu-jiue Tsai proposed to build another temple. As a result, Taishan Down Temple was constructed on Gouzaiqi Street in 1875 (the first year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign in Qing Dynasty. Taishan Down Temple (also known as Down Temple) is not as prominent as Taishan Up Temple, and it is not designated as a historic monument. However, Down Temple still boasts a proud history of nearly 130 years since it was built in 1875.

The Ming Zhi Academy is the first official and private academy in Northern Taiwan. It was founded in 1763 by Chuo-Yo Hu, a member of the nation’s most elite academy. He donated premises and raised funds for the free school, which had eventually evolved into a formal educational establishment.

Taishan Top Temple enshrines the Xian Ying Zu Shi Deity. In 1985, it was declared a municipal historic monument. In 1853 (year 3 of Emperor Xianfeng’s reign), the Quanzhang Armed Conflict erupted and Fushan Temple was burned to the ground by people from Zhangzhou; subsequently Fu-chi Li (grandson of Hsu-yuan Li) donated a plot of land to rebuild the temple and renamed it “Taishan Temple”, also known as “Top Temple” or “Taishan Top Temple”. Since it is located on the mountainside of Mt. Qizaijiao, it is sometimes referred to as “Qizaijiao Temple”. Later, another Taishan Temple was constructed on Mingzhi Road at the foot of the mountain, hence there are now two Taishan Temples, and Taishan Top Temple is also called “Qizaijiao Old Temple”.