After we surfed
on the Internet, we found many “no sky” streets of
other
forms. Some of them are local streets in Taiwan and others
are foreign streets. The extra construction of these streets
was different but they have one thing in common: their extra
construction aimed to reinforce the commercial function of
the streets. Now let’s see some interesting examples.
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Taiwan
Shihding
Old Street
There is an old street located in Shihding in northern
Taiwan. The old street is divided into
East Street and West
Street by Fushou Bridge. West street was the passage for the
transportation of tea in the past and was once very
prosperous. There were two hotels and one theater in the
street. On the other hand, East Street was built only Wutuku
Creak and used to be a gathering place for beggars. It was
called “beggar’s hut”. Diaojiao Building in East Street is a
well-known local “no sky” street house.
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East
Street
It used to be called Neiyuezih. It was developed later than
west street. During the early years of development, Shihding
was the center of tea transactions. Due to the narrow land,
people started to live in east street and began the
development of east street. The residences developed the
special architecture form“Diaojiao building”to solve the
problem of narrow land and thus made the special landscape
of “no sky”. The so-called “Diaojiao Building” refers to the
local “no sky” street house there. The houses are above the
river and were supported by pillars only. The “no sky”architecture form is two floor, including the house and
street downstairs.
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East street |
TOP
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Fenci
Old Street
Fenci Lake,
located in southern Taiwan, is a famous middle stop of the
forest railway in
Alishan. It was famous for the old
street, lunch box, and square bamboos. The town, which is
1045 meters above sea level, is a low-lying lands with its
three faces surrounded by mountains. It looks like a
dustpan. It is also called Dustpan Lake because it is
surrounded by clouds and fog and looks like a lake.
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The houses in
Fenci Lake were built along the hill. There is an
500-meter-long old street beneath the train station. The
stores in the street sell special products of the place, for
example, local lunch boxes, Tofu, and cookies and attract
lots of tourist to purchase them. The store owners built
extra roofs to block the rain and wind and formed
“no sky”.
The old street in Fenci Lake beneath the train station
didn’t have a street name and local people called it
“Street”. It is the place that the stores of Fenci Lake
first gathered.
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Fenci old street |
Inside the Fenci street |
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Lots of old
houses in the Fenci old street were burn in a couple of
years ago, and some of the house were torn down for building
fire prevention alley. The scale of old street today is not
as large as it used to be, and what we see are the outcome
of rebuilding the street. |