Taiwan's gateway to the world — an airport city and manufacturing powerhouse, a Hakka heartland of a thousand irrigation ponds, peach mountains and old camphor-trade towns.
台灣通往世界的大門——機場之城與製造業重鎮,也是有千口埤塘、水蜜桃山與樟腦老街的客家原鄉。
Taoyuan (桃園, literally "Peach Garden") sits on the terraced uplands southwest of Taipei, named for the peach trees that early Han settlers planted across the area in the Qing era. Before them the land belonged to Plains Indigenous (Ketagalan) peoples, and the southeastern mountains remain the homeland of the Atayal. Two communities shaped the region: Hoklo settlers concentrated in the north, while southern Taoyuan — Zhongli, Pingzhen, Yangmei and Longtan — became one of northern Taiwan's great Hakka heartlands, a place of tea hills and Hakka speech still heard in the markets.
桃園(字面意為「桃子的花園」)位於台北西南方的台地上,名字源自清代早期漢人移民遍植的桃樹。更早之前,這裡是平埔族(凱達格蘭)的領域,東南方山區至今仍是泰雅族的家鄉。兩大族群形塑了桃園:閩南移民多聚居北桃園,而南桃園的中壢、平鎮、楊梅、龍潭,則成為北台灣重要的客家原鄉之一,茶山與市場裡的客家話都是它的印記。
Taoyuan's most distinctive landscape is its water. The porous Taoyuan Tableland could never hold its rivers, so from the Qing era settlers — borrowing a practice from the Plains Indigenous peoples — dug thousands of irrigation ponds (埤塘) to catch rainwater for their rice. This earned Taoyuan the name "the Land of a Thousand Ponds." After a 1911 drought the Japanese built the great Taoyuan Canal to feed them, and in 1964 the Shimen Reservoir completed the network; at its peak the tableland held over 10,000 ponds, of which a few thousand survive as cultural and ecological heritage.
桃園最獨特的地景是「水」。多孔隙的桃園台地留不住河水,因此自清代起,移民借鏡平埔族的智慧,開鑿成千上萬口灌溉埤塘蓄雨灌田,使桃園贏得「千塘之鄉」的美名。1911 年大旱後,日本人興建桃園大圳串聯各埤塘,1964 年石門水庫補全了這套水網;台地全盛時曾有逾萬口埤塘,今約存數千口,被珍視為文化與生態資產。
In the modern era Taoyuan became Taiwan's industrial engine room, producing the highest industrial output of any city in Taiwan, its factories drawing one of the island's largest communities of Southeast Asian migrant workers. Above all, Taoyuan is Taiwan's front door: Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport opened in 1979, and almost every visitor's first and last steps in Taiwan happen here. On 25 December 2014 Taoyuan was upgraded from a county to a special municipality, joining Taiwan's six top-tier cities.
進入現代,桃園成為台灣的工業引擎,工業產值高居全台之冠,工廠也吸引了全台規模最大的東南亞移工社群之一。而桃園最重要的身分,是台灣的大門:台灣桃園國際機場於 1979 年啟用,幾乎每位旅客踏入與離開台灣的第一步與最後一步都在這裡。2014 年 12 月 25 日,桃園由縣升格為直轄市,躋身台灣六都之列。
A quiet lakeside villa in Daxi where the body of former president Chiang Kai-shek rests, drawing crowds for its hourly military honor-guard changing ceremony. The nearby sculpture park gathers more than 100 Chiang statues removed from around Taiwan — likely the only such park on earth.
A historic street of ornate Baroque-style shophouse facades built around 1918, fusing Western columns with Chinese carvings of bats and fish. Once a hub of the camphor and tea trades, Daxi is now famous as Taiwan's "tofu capital" for its dried tofu and as a center of fine woodcraft.
Completed in 1964 on the Dahan River, Shimen was Taiwan's first multi-purpose dam and remains one of its largest reservoirs. The dam, lake and surrounding hills are a scenic getaway, and the area is famous for "live fish" (活魚) restaurants serving reservoir fish many ways.
Taiwan's first glass skywalk, jutting out over the 55-metre Xiao Wulai Waterfall in the mountains of Fuxing District. The transparent floor lets you look straight down into the gorge below.
A high mountain forest in Atayal territory ("Lala" comes from the Atayal word R'ra). Its main draw is a grove of around 24 giant Taiwan red cypress trees, the oldest roughly 1,500 years old. The area is also famous for its sweet high-altitude peaches.
The scenic heart of Hakka Longtan: a large pond (once an irrigation lake) with a temple-crowned island reached by an elegant cable-stayed footbridge that lights up at night. You can paddle swan boats or watch dragon-boat races here.
Opened in 2008 in Longtan, this museum preserves and showcases Hakka literature, music and audio-visual heritage — a fitting anchor for Taoyuan's deeply Hakka south.
A long-running theme park in Longtan famous for its miniature replicas of landmarks from Taiwan and around the world, alongside rides — a nostalgic family favorite for generations.
A vibrant market around a former military village settled by Yunnanese-Burmese troops and families repatriated to Taiwan in the 1950s–60s. It is Taiwan's go-to place for Yunnan-style mi-gan rice noodles and Burmese-Thai flavors.
Spread through old Japanese-era dormitory buildings, this ecomuseum celebrates Daxi's heritage of fine furniture and temple carving — the woodcraft that, with dried tofu, made the town's name.
Taoyuan's culture flows from its Hakka south, its thousand ponds and the craft towns of Daxi — a genuine melting pot at Taiwan's gateway.
Zhongli, Pingzhen, Yangmei and Longtan form one of Taiwan's major Hakka regions, alive with Hakka language, cuisine, tea farming and festivals — Longtan is even one production area for Taiwan's prized Oriental Beauty tea. Across the tableland, the thousands of irrigation ponds (埤塘) are now treasured as living cultural-ecological heritage.
Daxi built its name on fine wooden furniture, intricate temple carving and its famous dried tofu. Meanwhile the Yunnan-Burmese quarter and a large Southeast-Asian migrant-worker community give Zhongli a genuinely cross-cultural street life found nowhere else in Taiwan.
A world No. 1 women's golfer, born in Taoyuan's Guishan. She became the youngest player ever — male or female — to win five major championships, and remains one of Taiwan's most celebrated athletes on the world stage.
An actor and singer born in Taoyuan, of Atayal and Hakka descent. He rose to fame in the hit drama Meteor Garden, becoming one of the faces of the early-2000s Mandopop and idol-drama boom across Asia.
Daxi's biggest event — locals call it their "second New Year." Held around lunar June 24 (usually in July), it began in 1914 and features dozens of community guilds (社頭), and is a registered intangible cultural heritage.
Each spring, around April and May, white tung blossoms blanket the Hakka hills like "May snow." Launched in 2002, the festival celebrates Hakka culture across Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli.
A large-scale outdoor art festival staging works by Taiwanese and international artists across the landscape, often weaving in local geography, the ponds and the region's history.
In summer, the mountain orchards of Fuxing District bring crowds up the winding roads for the famous, intensely sweet high-altitude peaches.
Taoyuan's food runs from Daxi dried tofu and hearty Hakka kitchens to the Yunnan-Burmese rice noodles of Zhongli.
The town's signature — firm, soy-braised dried tofu, sold from old shops along Daxi Old Street.
Daxi 大溪Whole reservoir fish prepared "a hundred ways" — steamed, fried, in soup — at restaurants near Shimen Reservoir.
Daxi・Longtan 大溪・龍潭Hearty Hakka cooking: squid, pork, dried tofu and celery wok-tossed together — the centerpiece of a southern-Taoyuan Hakka meal.
Zhongli・Longtan 中壢・龍潭A traditional Hakka drink of tea, seeds and grains ground together — both a beverage and a hands-on experience.
Longtan 龍潭Flat Yunnan-style rice noodles in rich broth, the star of the Zhongzhen quarter's Yunnan-Thai-Burmese food scene.
Zhongli・Pingzhen 中壢・平鎮Sweet, juicy high-mountain peaches harvested in summer from the orchards of Fuxing.
Fuxing 復興Wide, slippery flat rice noodles in savory broth — a comforting Hakka staple of the Taoyuan south.
Zhongli・Longtan 中壢・龍潭Hakka-grown teas from the southern hills, including green tea and Longtan's Oriental Beauty.
Longtan・Yangmei 龍潭・楊梅Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport — almost everyone's first step in Taiwan.
The highest industrial output of any city in Taiwan.
The Hakka culture, tea and cuisine of the Taoyuan south.
The famous 埤塘 pond landscape and the great Shimen Reservoir.
Fine furniture, temple carving and famous dried tofu.
High-mountain peaches and 1,500-year-old giant cypress.
Introduce Taoyuan to a visitor — tap 🔊 to hear each sentence. 用英文向訪客介紹桃園,點 🔊 聽聽看。
Sources · 資料來源:桃園市政府、客家委員會、交通部觀光署、台灣山林悠遊網、維基百科等公開資料整理。