Shenkeng District () is a rural

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

in central

New Taipei City New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, b ...

in northern

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 no ...

. Formerly an agricultural and mining town, it is now famous for its numerous

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...

restaurants and vendors.

History

The area is first recorded as the preserve of a tribe of

Pingpu Plains indigenous peoples (), previously called plain aborigines, are Taiwanese indigenous peoples originally residing in lowland regions, as opposed to Highland indigenous peoples. Plains indigenous peoples consist of anywhere from eight to twe ...

aborigines during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

period in Taiwan. When

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

farmers eventually moved in to develop the area, they bought the low-lying land from the aborigines and began cultivation in the main valley. The modern name of the township, Shenkeng, literally means ''deep pit'' or ''deep mine''. The area used to have several active coal mines. The name has also been explained with reference to the mountains surrounding Shenkeng on all sides, which make the terrain similar to a pit. On December 25, 2010, Shenkeng Township () became Shenkeng District ().

Geography

Shenkeng is a rural district which borders

Taipei City 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 ...

's Wenshan District to the west, Nangang District to the north, and the Shiding District of

to the east.

Politics and government

Politics in Shenkeng have largely been uneventful; the town is considered a safe seat for the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

. An exception was in 1996, when several members of the council were arrested on suspicion of connection with organised crime.

Administrative divisions

Shenkeng District includes eight urban villages: * Shenkeng (), Puxin (), Wanshun (), Wanfu (), Tuku (), Laizhong (), Arou (), Shenggao ()

Demographics

In the years 2012 to 2017, the population of Shenkeng District hovered around 23,600 with a steadily

ageing population Population ageing is an increasing median age in a population because of declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy. Most countries have rising life expectancy and an ageing population, trends that emerged first in developed countries ...

Education

Shenkeng is home to

Tungnan University Tungnan University (TNU; ) is a private university in Shenkeng District, New Taipei, Taiwan. History TNU was originally established as Tungnan Junior College of Technology in August 1970. In 2000, the college was promoted to Tungnan Institute of ...

, a private technical university. There is also a Junior High School and an Elementary School in the town.

Tourist attractions

The economy of Shenkeng is centred on tourism, and that tourism is based largely on

. The district is sufficiently well known in culinary circles that it has been a subject of media interest in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

.Chung The tofu from Shenkeng has an unusual ratio of soybean to

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

, giving it a yellowish colour and distinctive flavour. The town has become so readily identified with tofu that it has earned the epithet "The Tofu Capital". There are also extensive hiking trails, some of which were in use during the Japanese era by anti-Japanese guerilla fighters. *

Shenkeng Old Street The Shenkeng Old Street () is an old street in Shenkeng District, New Taipei, Taiwan. History In the 1980s, local residents campaigned against the demolition of the buildings along the street as part of the proposed road widening and redevelopm ...

Transportation

Transportation in Shenkeng is limited to roads only; there is as yet no railway or mass transit service, although proposals have been made to extend the Wenshan Line 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 in Taiwan, operated by the government-owned Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, which also operates the Maokong Gondo ...

into Shenkeng.Chiu Three bus companies offer passenger services within Shenkeng and between Shenkeng and surrounding settlements.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * *

External links

*
VTS 02 1
(about Tofu in Shenkeng) {{Districts in Taiwan Districts of New Taipei