Jin De Chun Old Tea House Introduction
Jin De Spring Tea Shop was founded in the seventh year of the Tongzhi era of the Qing Dynasty (1868) and has been passed down to the fifth generation to this day, with the location remaining unchanged. The fourth-generation manager, Mr. Lin Yinglong, attended Liren Elementary School and recalls playing during his childhood near Wumiao, Mazu Temple, and Guandi Port. At that time, there were other businesses in the area of the lottery alley, such as scissors cutting and making lice combs, and at the corner, a vendor sold decorative lanterns used on the theater stage, which were very bright and impressive. The alley became known as Lottery Alley due to the popularity of lottery fortune-telling. A notable feature of the shop is a row of large tea urns, which have a history of over a hundred years. These urns were brought to Taiwan by merchants from Tangshan during the Qing Dynasty. During the Japanese occupation, when the U.S. military bombed Taiwan, many buildings in the area were flattened, and the large tea urns suffered significant damage, with fewer than ten remaining in the shop today.
