Miaoli County’s Shihtan Village is a hidden spot that’s perfect for visitors who want to get away from the crowds. Attractions include a secret alleyway and a unique culinary heritage.
Miaoli’s Shihtan Village is an out-of-the-way kind of place with a lot of hidden history.
Here you’ll find a 60-year-old wooden rice polishing machine in an old rice barn and a secret route in town called the “hidden alley”. Local women who worked the fields during the day came through the secret alley at night to get their laundry done. That’s because the alley leads to an underground river where locals once did their washing.
Now the walls along the alleyway are decorated with nostalgic paintings showing scenes of life back when the town was famous for strawberry farming.
These days, Shihtan Village is most famous for a sweet iced dessert made with black herbal grass jelly. One creative local restaurant owner has taken this usually sweet ingredient and incorporated it into savory dishes like grass jelly dumplings and noodles.