Hengchun Old Street: Kenting Travel Guide (4.2★)

A food street inside a walled town

The Qing government walled Hengchun in 1875. The walls still ring the old town, and their four gates are among the most complete in Taiwan. Hengchun Old Street runs along Zhongshan Road inside that circuit. It’s a working commercial street: low shopfronts, awnings over the pavement, scooters parked nose-to-kerb and food counters opening straight onto the road.

Don’t confuse it with Kenting Main Street, which fills with beach crowds after dark. Hengchun is a proper township, and here you eat where the peninsula actually lives and shops. It’s well known and well reviewed, so expect company. It just isn’t the Kenting resort strip.

Eating your way down Zhongshan Road

Most of the street is restaurants and snack stalls. The simplest approach is to graze from one end to the other. Order one thing at each stop instead of sitting down to a full meal at the first place you see.

Things to look for:

• Lüdousuan (綠豆蒜), a southern Taiwanese dessert of split, hulled mung beans in syrup, served warm or over ice
• Anything with Hengchun onion, the township’s best-known crop, which turns up in pancakes and stir-fries in spring
• Noodle and rice counters where the menu is a board on the wall and the bowls come out in minutes
• Shaved ice and fruit stalls, which you’ll want in the heat of a Pingtung afternoon

Since the street opens at 8am, breakfast works too. Morning is when the town does its own errands before the day-trippers drive up from the beaches.

Walking out to the gates

Give the old town an hour beyond the food. The walls and gates are a short walk from Zhongshan Road, and circling them puts the street in context. The South Gate sits on a roundabout and gets photographed most. The East Gate is more tucked away, with a stretch of wall you can walk along.

Film fans will know Hengchun from Cape No. 7 (2008). That film put the town on Taiwan’s domestic tourism map, and several of its locations are in and around the old town.

Ordering and paying on the old street

Almost every stall here takes cash. Carry small notes so you’re not breaking a large bill for one bowl of dessert. Taiwan has no tipping culture, so pay what’s on the board and go. If you’re low on cash, the convenience stores in town take EasyCard and have ATMs.

The ordering routine at most counters:

• Point or name the dish. Then say you’ll eat in (內用, nèi yòng) or take it away (外帶, wài dài).
• Some shops hand you a paper menu to tick with a pencil. Fill it in and give it to the counter.
• Clear your own tray where there’s an obvious spot for it; staff at small shops appreciate it
• Where a stall has a line, join the end and have your order ready when you reach the front

On weekend evenings the pavements are narrow and scooters still use the road. Walk single file and keep to the shopfronts.

Getting to Hengchun and when to go

Without a car, take the Kenting Express bus from Kaohsiung. It connects with Zuoying HSR station and stops at the Hengchun bus transfer station, a short walk from the old town. Local buses run on to Kenting Main Street and the beaches. Drivers should aim for a public lot at the edge of the old town, because the street itself is narrow and busy.

Time it around your beach days:

• Sunday evening is the best choice, because the Sunday night market nearby adds a second round of stalls
• Late afternoon into dinner combines the gates in softer light with a meal after
• Winter (roughly October to March) brings the luoshan feng (落山風), the strong downslope wind the peninsula is famous for. It’s bracing on the walls, so bring a layer.

The street is open 8am to 10pm daily. Individual shops keep their own hours and some close for a midweek rest day, so don’t count on one particular stall being open.

How long to give it

Two to three hours covers a proper eating crawl and a loop of the gates without rushing. If you’re staying in Kenting, Hengchun makes an easy dinner run north on a night you’ve had enough of the Main Street crowds. It also slots neatly into a drive up the west coast of the Hengchun Peninsula.