Baroque shophouses line a covered arcade for most of a kilometre, packed with tea, herbs and dried goods.
What Dadaocheng looks like
runs for most of a kilometre under a continuous ground floor arcade, its columns supporting two and three storey shophouses on both sides. Baroque facades in red brick and pale stucco rise above the arcade, their shell pediments and round medallions framing arched upper windows. Several fronts are wrapped in scaffolding for repair. Ground floor shutters and awnings mark out shops stacked with dried mushrooms, herbs, tea and fabric. The goods sit out in clear bags along the arcade's edge.
Xiahai City God Temple stands on the street's east side, a single storey building with a carved and tiled ridge roof behind a red sign that spans the width of its awning. Minyi Cheng, a converted shophouse just north of the temple, keeps its own two storey brick front and timber shutters behind a glass storefront of ceramics and tea sets. A few minutes north, narrows between shopfronts strung with red paper lanterns for the incense trade.
A stone gate carved with figures along its lintel spans a lane off Nanjing West Road at , red lanterns hanging beneath it and cars crossing underneath on the road the gate itself was built over. , further north on Minsheng West Road, keeps a three storey brick front with the same stepped parapet ornament as the shophouses nearer the temple.
Shot in Dadaocheng
Dihua Street's own storefronts have stood in for themselves rather than being redressed. Twa-Tiu-Tiann, a 2014 film, filmed its one scene in the real district at Minyi Cheng. The series Purple Dadaocheng, a 2016 production for Sanlih Taiwan, used three further real storefronts to play Dadaocheng's own 1924. One of them, Xinfangchun Tea House, still stands on Minsheng West Road.
Twa-Tiu-Tiann, 2014
Minyi Cheng
Minyi Cheng, a converted century-old shophouse just north of Xiahai City God Temple, is the one scene in Twa-Tiu-Tiann actually filmed in the real Dadaocheng. The film's other 1920s street scenes were built on a set at a heritage park in Yilan, so this shopfront is the credit's only genuine location. Street View
What Dadaocheng can double for
Lebuh Chulia in George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Lebuh Chulia keeps the same five-foot shophouse arcade and two storey scale as Dihua Street, with Baroque-and-Chinese facades built in the same colonial decades. The stretch near Lebuh Pantai has the closest match to Dadaocheng's shuttered ground floors and arched upper windows. Penang's shutters and plasterwork run brighter and more pastel than Dadaocheng's red brick and cream stucco, and English and Malay signage needs covering for a Taiwan read. Try searching five-foot shophouse arcade now.
Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in Cho Lon has the same traditional medicine shophouse row as Dihua Street, with herb shops stacked floor to ceiling behind open fronts. Its two and three storey buildings date from the same 1920s and 1930s Chinese merchant building boom. Motorbike traffic runs far heavier than Dadaocheng's scooters. French-era shutters and ironwork also read differently in close-up, so wider shots hold the illusion better than tight ones. Try searching traditional medicine shophouse row now.
Pagoda Street in Singapore
Pagoda Street is a restored shophouse row sharing Dihua Street's two storey scale and covered five-foot way, built in the same early 1900s to 1920s period. It is a looser comparison because the restoration gives every shutter and parapet a uniform fresh coat. The clean paint and tourist signage need dressing out, and Singapore's tiled roofs sit lower than Dadaocheng's parapeted fronts in a wide shot. Try searching restored shophouse row now.
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