Huashan Creative Park, Taipei
Huashan Creative Park is the cultural center for not only Taipei, but for the country of Taiwan as well. With the combination of art and food, the park provides a historic setting.
Built by the Japanese in the early part of the 20th century, Huashan was originally a wine factory, till its relocation in the 80′s. For the better part of a decade, it was an abandoned site, as well as an eye sore in the middle of Taipei. A theatrical troupe unofficially rezoned the site for themselves as a performance venue, till authorities halted them (to make sure no one would get hurt in the run down buildings). The Association of Culture Environment Reform Taiwan, in 1999, began to official restore the site into an artists mecca. In 2007, the Taiwan Cultural-Creative Development Co. Ltd, took over to open and operate the center with shops, galleries, and restaurants. Today thousands of visitors dine, attend shows, and patronize the shops each week.
The restaurants you find at the Huashan 1914, the official name, are unique non-chain restaurants. On my visit, with fellow blogger Petite Elaine on the Home Hotel tour, we had 青葉新樂園 Green Leaf Restaurant. The lunch was especially exciting for me to sample some of Taiwan’s favorite street snacks. Taiwan is known for their great street food. The egg oyster, the steamed glutinous rice ball, and the rice noodle dishes are some of my favorites we had. This restaurant is one of the finer restaurants in Taipei that feature this type of fare.
At 1914Furnifood (家傢酒), this combination cafe/boutique features crafts and furniture pieces from Taiwanese artisans designers. Home Hotel features furniture from some of this collection.
As we browsed the other little cafes and restaurants, including A Little Tea House (一間茶屋) and Al Cicchetto 義麵坊小酒館, I imagined how other cities around the world have created similar sites – with Los Angeles’ 3rd Street Promenade and Shanghai’s Tianzifang 田子坊.
What makes Huashan different is the large spaces for artists. I was fascinated by the first gallery that we went to with the Hand standing man. This guy self took camera portraits of himself hand standing in various picturesque and famous locales all around Taiwan. He would set up a camera then run over to a spot and do a hand stand while the camera (with timer) took the shot. He did this for over a hundred different spots. I never knew some of the mastery and beauty of Taiwan, till I saw his footage. Plus, the story about how his humble parents, who support his idea, spoke how they were happy that he was able to live his dream.
Dreams is multi-artist exhibit featuring different mediums with photography, fashion, music, design, and style. Housed in a large two story building, each of the artists was able to capture their expression in their own way. I was particularly interested in 王建揚’s photography with the colors, setting, and of course the naked girls.
The site features restored factory buildings that now are home of large gallery spaces for both performance art and display art. You can see railroad ties that linked each of the buildings. The thick walls of each building remind us of a time, of a past generation that is getting a new lease on life. Smoke stacks give way to the digital age and the clanging factories are out sounded by cheers of the new millennia. Huashan represents the new Taiwan, whilst invigorating the relic past.
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Rating 3 Pigs
華山1914文創園區 Huashan Creative Park 100 台北市中正區八德路一段1號 No. 1, Bade Road Sec. 1, Zhong Zhen District, Taipei 100 +886(2) 2358-1914 tel +886(2) 2358-1165 fax huashan1914.com
Huashan Creative Park is an renovated Wine Factory dating back to around 100 years.
青葉新樂園 is the restaurant that we had lunch at.
Green Leaf Restaurant 青葉新樂園 - check out the authentic feel of the street food carts.
They cook tasty Taiwanese favorites right in front of you.
Here’s the spread for the buffet of other traditional taiwanese dishes
There was a nice variety of seafood and meats.
Braised fatty pork was one of the foods at the buffet that I particularly liked.
Green Leaf Restaurant is great for groups
Oyster Egg snack one of the Taiwanese favorite dishes.
A vegetable dish from the Buffet.
A hand rolled Taiwanese vegetable wrap. I believe it is called Buddhist Delight.
Stir fried vegetables.
A light rice noodle soup dish. Savory and Yummy!
This is a steamed glutinous rice ball filed with vegetables.
Look at all the goodness inside
This is a He-Song Sarsaparilla drink. Sort of like ginger ale and root beer. Great Taiwanese drink.
To finish things off, I had a little popsicle.
The Roselle Hibiscus flavor of this popsicle brought back memories of my childhood at my grandparents’ home in Tainan, years ago. Unfortunately, I cannot describe the flavor - you just have to try it.
Right across the way is this little cafe featuring furniture, crafts, and arts of local Taiwanese designers. This Cafe, 1914Furnifood(家傢酒), is located in a former military building. Home Hotel uses furniture in their hotel from some of these designers.
The building that 1914Furnifood(家傢酒) has walls almost 1 meter thick - to protect from bombs.
This complex was originally built by the Japanese in the early 1900’s
A Little Tea House (一間茶屋) is yet another quaint cafe. Inside there’s little trinkets and memorabiliia of Taiwan’s pop culture.
Inside A Little Tea House (一間茶屋) with the display case of Taiwanese pop culture history.
Check out Kimlan soy sauce.
Huashan is also the home of Al Cicchetto 義麵坊小酒館, a little Italian bistro.
Outside of Al Cicchetto 義麵坊小酒館 is the outdoor patio. These tall bar stools emulate the old style plastic stools that you used to see at roadside hole-in-the-wall Taiwanese restaurants.
Huashan also features art exhibits. This one is from the NPM Animation studio, showcasing their 3D prototypes, especially their glass-less 3D flat screen large screen monitor.
The NPM Animation exhibit is housed inside a large kiln, where you can actually see the furnace.
In this part of Huashan, there’s large exhibit halls for temporary art and performance shows.
You can see the railroad ties, remnants of the old wine making factory. Now these building bring life to art and culture.
The 100 plays Acrobatics Festival (百戲雜技節) was an amazing exhibit of one guy standing on his hands in various parts of picturesque Taiwan.
At 百戲雜技節 you weren’t really sure of what you were watching till you delved into it. Then after realizing what he did, it was amazing. The story how his parents support his idea, just by the fact that he was doing what he dreamed about - was refreshing to hear - since we hear so many Taiwanese parents with their traditional upbringing ideals.
This was also another cool exhibit, One-carat dream exhibition of contemporary aesthetics (一克拉的夢想當代美學展) about contemporary Taiwanese artists, who are influenced from around the world.
一克拉的夢想當代美學展 or as I would call the “DREAMS” exhibit has some pretty interesting art and designs using different mediums.
The entrance to the DREAMS exhibition.
This artist, 王建揚 – 村上隆欽點攝影新人, features amazing imagery featuring nude models in unique poses in a colorful dreamlike stance. He is
王建揚, who is featured with the giant ice cream cone, will take pictures over and over again, in order to get the right shot. He does not use any wires. Looks as if he has inspirations from Salvador Dali.
王建揚 has an eye for the playful, the colorful, as well as the sexy.
I must confess that I was initially drawn to the naked girls, but the color pictures make it worthwhile.
古又文, 美國Gen Art國際服裝大賽『前衛時裝』大賞得主 creates using yarn to produce extrodinary pieces of wearable art.
不二良 - 第54屆威尼斯雙年展藝術新星 produces unique figurines in color shapes and sizes - with some immensely large.
The large exhibit space at Huashan is a great venue for artist community in Taiwan.
The Huashan Creative Park is one of the top destinations in Taiwan for tourists.
