Hengchun Old Town

Hengchun was laid out in the 1870s as a walled administrative town and completed in 1879, and it has the most complete Qing-era town wall left in Taiwan. All four gates survive, along with long stretches of wall between them, and the town simply grew around it: roads pass through the arches, shops back onto the masonry, and sections of rampart can be climbed and walked. Inside, the street plan is still the original grid, low and unhurried, with a morning market and a few streets of old shophouses. The town is also home to a distinctive local folk song tradition sung to the moon lute, kept going by a small number of older players.

What you actually see

• The four gates - the surviving arches, with scooters still passing through them.
• The wall walk - climbable stretches of rampart between the gates.
• The old grid - the original town plan of low streets inside the walls.
• The morning market - the everyday market that fills the central streets early.

When to go

October to April. The far south is warm in winter, which is the point, but from October the luoshan wind pours down off the mountains and can be strong enough to be genuinely unpleasant. Summer is hot and inside the typhoon season. Early morning is the time for the market and for walking the wall before the heat arrives.

Honest expectations

Most people pass straight through on the way to Kenting and give the town twenty minutes, which is about what the gates alone justify. The wall is broken by roads in several places, so the walk is in sections rather than a circuit. There is no great monument here and the interest is in the ordinary streets. Accommodation is aimed squarely at the beach trade.

Nearby

Kenting's coast begins ten minutes south and the Sheding uplands rise behind the town.