Little South Gate (Chongxi Gate)

小南門重熙門· Historic site

About

The walled city of Taipei was one of the last walled cities built under Qing rule. Its walls have all gone, leaving only a few gates as reminders of history.

The walls were 4 metres wide and 5 metres high and ran for about 4 kilometres, making it a strongly fortified city. Chinese city walls usually had four gates, but Taipei had five. It is said that the Lin Benyuan family, wealthy merchants of Banqiao, paid for this gate so that they could come and go more easily. The story is unproven, but Little South Gate is an unusual case among Chinese walled cities. It escaped Japanese demolition along with the East Gate and South Gate, but after the Nationalist government came to Taiwan it was rebuilt as a northern Chinese palace-style gate tower; only its base keeps its original form.

Translated and shortened by DealTaipei from Taiwan's national tourism database. Sources are on the terms page.

Facts and sources

Names: EN Little South Gate (Chongxi Gate)中文小南門重熙門한국어 충시먼 Chinese from the listing; English by DealTaipei
District: Zhongzheng District · 中正區 Tourism Administration listing, updated 2026-05-20
Opening hours: Not in the listing Tourism Administration listing, read 2026-09-30
Phone: (02)27208889 Tourism Administration listing. May be Chinese only
Data: /api/sight/little-south-gate-chongxi-gate.json The same facts as JSON, for apps and AI agents