From Takow to Kaohsiung

Ximending (西門町), Wanhua District, Taipei City

Today a center of fashion and youth culture, Ximending (西門町; Jpn. Seimon-chō; "West Gate Sub-ward") developed from the entertainment district promoted early in the Period of Japanese Rule (1895~1945) on wasteland outside the walled Qing-dynasty Taipei City's western gate, officially known as 寶成門 (Mdn. Baocheng Men; literally c. "Precious Becoming Gate"), even though the gate itself had already been demolished in 1904.

Still prominent in the area today, for example, is Red House Theater (紅樓劇場), though this was originally built in 1908 as a covered market.

Taipei's West Gate, built in the 1880s as part of the city's walls and demolished in 1904.

As the entertainment and commercial area expanded, it absorbed other neighboring chō (町; sub-wards), such as Shinki-chō (新起町), Wakatake-chō (若竹町), Suehiro-chō (末廣町), Kotobuki-chō (壽町) and Tsukiji-chō (築地町).
[MC: another source also mentions Hama-chō[浜町?] and Izumi-chō.]

Ximending is one of very few examples of 町 retained in use in Taiwan place names today. This is perhaps because it has a very different meaning in Chinese from the Japanese "sub-ward", instead indicating the boundary of a field or the raised walkway between fields.

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