Southern Taipei's old literary quarter, where publishers and writers once gathered; follow Tong'an Street to the end for Kishu An
The closest neighborhoods in the same city.
The area around Tong'an Street, Xiamen Street, and Kishu An is often called Chengnan ("south of the city") by literary historians. In the 1960s, with Kishu An at its centre, literary magazines and publishers clustered here, nurturing modern literary writers such as Lin Haiyin and Yu Kwang-chung. That literary atmosphere lives on today at the Kishu An Forest of Literature, which by 2019 had hosted more than two thousand talks. If you'd like to visit, just walk down Tong'an Street toward the Xindian River — it's right at the end.
Seeing a doctor is fairly convenient — healthcare here ranks 22nd among Taipei's 73 neighborhoods. For schooling, there are two elementary schools: Yingqiao Elementary School, in Yingxue Village, and Hedi Elementary School, which is in Hedi Village, the same village as Kishu An. The MRT is a short walk away, with both Guting Station and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station just one or two hundred metres outside the neighborhood.
There's no MRT station within the neighborhood itself, so every day you'll need to walk out of it first to catch a train. Street environment ranks 65th, making it one of the weaker aspects of this neighborhood. The southern edge runs along the Shuiyuan Expressway, so if you're looking at houses on the side nearest the levee, it's worth keeping an eye on the traffic; just beyond the levee is the riverside park. Although Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre and Nanmen Market are both nearby, neither one actually falls within this neighborhood.
During the Japanese colonial era, this area was called Kawabata-cho, meaning "riverside". Back then the riverbank was a place where people from Taipei came to cool off and enjoy the moon, with one ryotei (Japanese restaurant) after another lining the shore, and in summer people would even take pleasure boats out to beat the heat. The place name Yingqiao also dates from that time — it refers to a small wooden bridge near where Xiamen Street meets Heping West Road, where fireflies often flitted about in summer and autumn. In 1917, the Hiramatsu family opened a branch of Kishu An on the bank of the Xindian River. Writer Wang Wenxing lived here with his family as a child. The main building burned down in 1994, but thanks to efforts from residents and academics, it was designated a municipal historic monument in 2004. The new building of the Forest of Literature opened first in 2011, followed by the restored annex in 2014.
Compared with the 73 Taipei neighborhoods in this guide (scores 0–10)
NHI-contracted hospitals, public elementary and junior high schools whose catchment covers this area (estimated from the 2026 school-year village/neighborhood catchment table, treating every neighborhood in a village as equal in size; "Shared catchment" means families there can choose between two or more schools), high schools and universities within 1 km, stations, parks of 1 ha or more, and large shopping malls and department stores.
Maps show the shops and the sights. What a street is like, you only know by walking it. TidyMap uses AI street imagery analysis and public facility data to turn each area's street environment and everyday convenience into something you can compare. Search an address and look at the street outside first.
How to read it: yellow = poor, blue = good; grey = not enough data
TidyMap rates the street environment and everyday convenience. It does not assess the home itself, safety, noise or actual living experience. Street environment scores use AI assessments of imagery; convenience scores use public facility data.
Content is for personal browsing. Official TidyMap neighborhood cards may be shared as generated; anyone using one commercially is responsible for their own compliance (sharing guidelines). Bulk extraction, APIs and dataset redistribution require a data licence — email us. This site uses Google Analytics and Cloudflare Analytics.