Gongguan () is a

commercial district A commercial district or commercial zone is any part of a city or town in which the primary land use is Commerce, commercial activities (Retailing, shops, offices, Theater (structure), theaters, restaurants and so on), as opposed to a residential ...

straddling the

Zhongzheng Zhongzheng or Chungcheng () is a common name for places, roads, schools or organizations in Chinese-speaking areas, though today predominantly in Taiwan. The majority of these places and things are named after Chiang Chung-cheng, the preferred g ...

and Daan Districts of

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It is a popular shopping and leisure area with a

night market Night markets or night bazaars are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. They are typically open-air markets popular in East Asia, Sou ...

and it is also the location of the

Gongguan Station Gongguan (, formerly transliterated as Kungkuan Station until 2003) is a metro station in Taipei, Taiwan served by the Taipei Metro. National Taiwan University, the most prestigious university of Taiwan, is close to the station. Station overview ...

of the

Taipei Metro Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), branded as Metro Taipei, is a rapid transit system serving the areas of Taipei and New Taipei City, New Taipei in Taiwan, operated by the State-owned enterprise, government-owned Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation ...

. Taiwan's most prestigious university,

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

, and the

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology () abbreviated as NTUST or TaiwanTech (), is a public technological university located in Taipei, Taiwan. TaiwanTech was established in 1974 as the National Taiwan Institute of Technology ( ...

National Taiwan Normal University National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU; ), or ''Shīdà'' is an institution of higher education and normal school operating out of three campuses in Taipei, Taiwan. NTNU is the leading research institute in such disciplines as Education and Lin ...

, as well as the prestigious

International Chinese Language Program The International Chinese Language Program (ICLP; ) is an institution for intensive training in formal Mandarin, Taiwanese, Classical Chinese, and other varieties of Chinese. It is located in Gongguan, Taipei, on the main campus of Nationa ...

are located in the area. Gongguan is also the location of the old Taipei tap water facilities, now the

Museum of Drinking Water The Museum of Drinking Water () is a museum about drinking water in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. The museum is located at Taipei Water Park. History The museum building was originally built in 1908. It was declared a third-class histori ...

. The name Gongguan can be traced to the Kangxi Era of the Qing Dynasty, when colonial chiefs established public houses (Chinese: 公館; pinyin: Gongguan) that facilitated trade between the Han Chinese settlers and local aboriginal traders.

References

Neighbourhoods in Taipei {{Taiwan-geo-stub