Taoyuan
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Taoyuan

Taoyuan

Industrial city southwest of Taipei, best known for Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Daxi Old Street.

Taoyuan is a sprawling industrial and residential city southwest of Taipei, best known to travellers as the location of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Most people pass through without stopping, which is fair — there isn't much to hold you.

If you do have time between flights, the Daxi Old Street area has preserved Baroque-influenced shophouse facades from the Japanese colonial period, and the surrounding Daxi District produces the smoked tofu that appears in every Taiwanese supermarket. Cihu Memorial Park contains a large collection of Chiang Kai-shek statues gathered from around Taiwan after public appetite for such memorials declined.