Hsinchu Beiguoyuan

Běiguōyuán (北郭園) was built by Zhèng Yòngxí (鄭用錫), Taiwan’s first native-born candidate to pass the imperial examinations (開臺進士), just outside the north gate of the walled city of Zhúqiàn (竹塹城), now known as Hsinchu. Construction began in 1851 and took four years, costing over 100,000 silver taels. Locals knew it as the “outer mansion” (外公館), while Qianyuan inside the city walls was the “inner mansion” (內公館). Both were counted among Taiwan’s five great garden estates (五大名園) in the late Qing dynasty era.

During the Japanese colonial era, most of the garden estate was demolished to make way for the boulevard connecting Hsinchu Station to the main airbase to the north. Surviving structures were further damaged by American bombing in World War 2, and by 1990 the last remnants had been cleared, making Beiguoyuan the first of Taiwan’s great garden estates to vanish entirely. A small monument salvaged from the site can still be found in front of Hsinchu Prefecture Library.