Yifang Old House
義芳居古厝· Historic site
About
The house was built by the Chen family, early settlers of Taipei. The family came from Anxi County in Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian, and its founding ancestor crossed the sea to Taiwan to farm during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty.
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The family already had a house, but in the early Guangxu reign they invested heavily in building Yifangju. The three-sided courtyard house is a typical old house of the Taipei Basin. The main hall has a recessed entrance, and the walls of the main hall and side wings are solid, thick brick and stone, with few openings for doors and windows. A two-storey gun tower was built on the outer wing so the family could fight back if bandits attacked. Many of the windows are made of stone, a local sandstone from Taipei. The door lintel is inscribed 'Yifangju' and signed with the year bingzi, which is calculated as 1876 (the second year of the Guangxu reign), when the house was built. As Taipei has developed rapidly in modern times, Qing-dynasty houses like this have become increasingly rare, and it bears witness to the opening up of Taipei.
Translated by DealTaipei from Taiwan's national tourism database. Sources are on the terms page.
Facts and sources
- Names
- EN Yifang Old House中文 義芳居古厝한국어 이팡쥐 옛집 Wikidata Q48911256, Chinese from the listing, Korean by DealTaipei (NIKL transcription)
- District
- Da'an District · 大安區 Tourism Administration listing, updated 2026-05-29
- Opening hours
- Not in the listing Tourism Administration listing, read 2026-09-30
- Phone
- (02)27208889 Tourism Administration listing. May be Chinese only
- Data
- /api/sight/yifang-old-house.json The same facts as JSON, for apps and AI agents
Getting there
Wikidata (CC0). Sources and photo credits are on the terms page.