Department of Cultural Affairs

Restored last year to its former splendor, Sin Hong Choon Trading Co., the historic tea factory and trading company, launched this summer a special exhibition entitled “Revisiting the Golden Age of Tea in Dadaocheng”. In continuation of the previous exhibition, “The Old Tea Shop”, the special exhibition introduces a series of themes, including tea merchants, tea shops, tea flavor profile, tea fairs, and tea houses, enabling visitors to experience the rich Dadaocheng tea culture through all five senses.
At the press conference [to launch the exhibition], third-generation owner of the tea factory Wang Kuo-chung displayed two antiques that have been handed down in his family: an exquisite 100-year-old hand-painted tea box, and the 70-year-old Shin Hong Choon stored export tea. To symbolically open the exhibition, Wang opened the tea box with Chung Yung-feng, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the room was filled with the alluring aromas of vintage tea.
Commissioner Chung spoke at the press conference, saying that Dadaocheng was not only the wholesale center for tea leaves, Chinese herbal medicine, fabrics, and groceries, but also a cultural center where festival events, traditional dramas, and religious practice thrived. It was also the base for many local enterprises and the origin of the modernization and new culture movement in Taiwan back in the 1920s and 1930s.
Built in the 1930s, the Shin Hong Choon Trading Co. was a leading tea factory in Taipei and boasted unique architecture. The four-in-one building served as tea shop, tea-parching factory, warehouse, and residence. Designated a historic site by the Taipei City Government in 2009, the building has been turned into a curated space for tea culture exhibitions and a living monument to the golden age of the Dadaocheng tea industry.
The exhibition is divided into five parts: “A Day in the Life of a Tea Merchant”, “Aroma—the Tea Profile”, “The Golden Years of Tea”, “Formosa Tea Trade Fair”, and “Elegant Tea House”. Taipei residents and visitors are encourage to come and enjoy the exhibition at Shin Hong Choon.