Xinzhuang

Xīnzhuāng (新莊) occupies flat terrain at the confluence of the Dahan and Tamsui rivers in New Taipei. Before Mengjia rose to prominence, Xinzhuang was the commercial and political center of northern Taiwan. During the mid-18th century ocean-going vessels from China and Japan could navigate upstream to its bustling wharves. The old street, now called Temple Street (廟街), runs about one kilometer and is dense with temples established in the Qing dynasty era.

The district’s port silted up by the mid-19th century, ceding trade to Mengjia. Industrial development later reshaped the area; light manufacturing zones now share space with new residential towers. On the hillside above the MRT depot sits the Losheng Sanatorium, a Japanese colonial era leprosy hospital established in 1929, now a heritage site after decades of controversy over its partial demolition for transit construction.