I had some time to kill before work yesterday so I decided to check out a few places I had been meaning to visit for a while. The Chih Shan-Yen Gate [芝山岩隘門] is on the stairway up to Huiji Temple [惠濟宮].

The gate was built in 1825 by a community of immigrants from Zhangzhou [漳州] during a period of armed conflict with immigrants from Quanzhou [泉州][both from Fujian Province (福建省)]

Originally consisting of four gates [north, south, east, and west], only the west gate survives today.

Huiji Temple was built between 1752-1764 and dedicated to the Sage King Chen Yuanguang [開漳聖王陈元光], the founder of Zhangzhou District in Fujian. It has since been rebuilt 5 times with its current structure dating from 1968.

Standing in front of the temple gives an interesting view of Shilin [View the large]

Behind the temple is a raised walkway. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to explore too much, the area is littered with old defensive fortifications [given the vicinity to Chiang Kai-shek’s former residence]:

I also wanted to see the Chih Shan-Yen Prehistoric Site [芝山岩遺址] which is a small archaeological excavation. I found out when I arrived that it is only open weekends and holidays from 11:00-12:00 and 15:30-16:30. How foolish of me to arrive on a weekday! I will likely go after work on Saturday so I will save additional details for that time.

Getting there is easy, just take the MRT to Zhishan Station and follow the signs.

Information for this post is from Historic Sites in Taipei I.