Fifty years ago, when daily necessities were scarce, Hsinchuang was northern Taiwan's manufacturing center for local food such as traditional pastries, tofu and barley sugar.
At its peak, there were about 90 bakeries in town, producing cookies and pastries for local and national retailers.
In the 1960s, however, Western bakeries arrived in the country and began taking business away from the traditional ones.
Now only two of the traditional bakeries are left on Hsinchuang Street. But this thoroughfare, which runs between Shulin Road and Chungcheng Road, has become a tourism area as part of a Hsinchuang City Government project to offer visitors a taste of the good old days.
Nestled among the some 200 shops on the 800m street, the Laoshoonhsiung Bakery (
With the economy in the doldrums, Wang Ming-chao (王明朝), the fourth-generation owner of the 120-year-old bakery, said that his shop is still enjoying brisk business.
"Take yesterday, for example, I sold about 200 pingan cakes (pastry in the shape of turtle symbolizing longevity), 2,000 birthday shoutao (pastry in the shape of peach, also symbolizing longevity) and 120kg of birthday noodles," he said.
The 19th day of the second month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Friday, marks the birthday of Kuanyin, the goddess of mercy.
Other seasonal orders include stuffed sweet dumplings for the Lantern Festival, sticky rice cakes for the Lunar New Year, moon cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival and spring-roll dough for Tomb Sweeping Day.
According to Wang, orders for traditional engagement cakes can reach 500 boxes a week.
In addition to offering traditional pastries, Wang's store also offers western pastries such as birthday cakes and buns.
Each week Wang sells an average of 15 birthday cakes and 100 month-old birth cakes costing between NT$350 and NT$700 each.
Quality traditional engagement cakes should have a crispy crust and an aromatic stuffing, sweet or salty, Wang said.
"While most people prefer traditional stuffing such as red bean paste, white sesame paste and minced pork, we also offer innovative flavors such as green tea, Chinese yam and sticky rice cake," he said.
Uninterested in school, the 45-year-old Wang became an apprentice at a local bakery at the age of 17.
Over the past 28 years, Wang said that he has seen the local pastry industry gradually decline.
"Not many people are interested in traditional pastry any more because there are way more choices of snacks and cakes out there," Wang said. "As old bakers disappear and fewer young people are interested in learning the skills, bakeries in this town are closing down one by one," he said.
Lin Chih-ming (
Lin, who now runs a retail store on Chunghua Road in Hsinchuang, closed his bakery in 1987 after some 40 years in business.
"It took a lot of time and effort to make the pastry and sell them at the same time," said Lin, 70. "Besides, my son is not at all interested in taking over the business."
Lin's grandfather started the family business some 120 years ago, and Lin began learning how to make traditional Taiwanese pastry when he was eight or nine, he said.
"It isn't easy to make quality pastries," Lin said. "You need different quantities of ingredients for different weather."
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