Dadaocheng: The Port the Defeated Built · 7
How a Century-Old Shophouse Reopens
Ep.7 · The Yicheng series and URS
FitTrip Editor · 2026.07.20
Dadaocheng’s newest layer is the reuse of old shophouses. Sedai Group, led by Chou Yi-cheng, opened Xiaoyicheng in 2011, and a series followed — Minyicheng, Zhongyicheng, Xueyicheng, Heyicheng and more. Each layers a different venture model onto five resources drawn from Dadaocheng’s own culture: cloth, opera, tea, herbal medicine and architecture. Minyicheng occupies a century-old three-bay shophouse, with a ceramics and folk-craft shop at the front, a café deeper in and a tea house upstairs, so you can walk the narrow, deep plan of Ep.4 with your own feet. Add Taipei’s URS urban regeneration stations and reuse here stops being one shop’s taste and becomes a method.
The newest layer in Dadaocheng is not a new building. It is a method for reopening old ones without knocking them down.
2011, starting from one house
The current began when Sedai Group, led by Chou Yi-cheng, opened Xiaoyicheng in 2011 Fact. A series followed — Minyicheng, Zhongyicheng, Xueyicheng, Heyicheng and others — each layering a different venture model onto five resources drawn from Dadaocheng’s culture: cloth, opera, tea, herbal medicine and architecture Fact. Reuse approached as an inventory of resources rather than a mood Estimate.
Walking inward
Minyicheng is the clearest example: a century-old three-bay shophouse with a ceramics and folk-craft shop at the front, a café deeper in, and a tea house upstairs Fact. It matters because you can actually walk the narrow, deep plan you read about in Ep.4 — light and sound change as you move from front to back Estimate.
From single shops to a method
Taipei’s URS urban regeneration stations sit on top of this. That programme reopens old buildings as cultural, exhibition and food-and-drink spaces, and its sites are distributed through Dadaocheng, so reuse became a method rather than one operator’s taste Fact.
And the question it leaves
But this layer summons the next chapter’s question by itself. As cafés and galleries reviving old buildings multiply, what happens to rents on the street? Can the herbalists and fabric sellers stay Estimate? Reuse is an answer and a new problem at once — Ep.9 takes it head on.
FAQ
- What is the Yicheng series?
- A run of old Dadaocheng shophouses leased and revived by Sedai Group under Chou Yi-cheng. It began with Xiaoyicheng in 2011 and continued through Minyicheng, Zhongyicheng, Xueyicheng and others, taking five local resources — cloth, opera, tea, herbal medicine and architecture — as venture themes.
- What is inside Minyicheng?
- A century-old three-bay shophouse: a ceramics and folk-craft shop at the front of the ground floor, a café deeper inside, and a tea house on the upper floor. You can walk the shophouse plan as it deepens toward the back.
- What is URS?
- Taipei’s Urban Regeneration Station programme, which reopens old buildings as cultural, exhibition and food-and-drink spaces. Several sit in Dadaocheng and form the spine of the reuse experiment.
Checklist
- Xiaoyicheng in 2011 is the starting point of reuse
- Cloth, opera, tea, herbs, architecture — five resources as venture themes
- Walk the three-bay shophouse plan inside Minyicheng
- Reuse is both answer and new problem — carried into Ep.9
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