Wufenpu

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Wufenpu is a big wholesale clothes market in Xinyi District, Taipei. It sits at the foot of Sishou Mountain and covers five sections of Zhongxiao East Road, from Section 5 east toward Songren Road and Zhongpo North Road. It’s Taipei’s largest clothing market, near Songshan Station and Houshanpi Station.

Historically, the area was land of the Ketagalan tribe, the Malysyakkaw. In 1769, five Fujian families bought the land, giving it the name “Wu-fen-pu,” meaning “land with five divisions.” The soil was poor and the area even housed mental hospitals and pig farms, once seen as wasteland.

After World War II, about 13 years later, in 1958 a typhoon caused a major flood in Taiwan. To help veterans near Taipei Station, the government donated land in Wufenpu and the Ministry of National Defense built about 1,200 temporary homes. In the 1960s, many people from Fangyuan in Changhua County moved to Taipei, using the first floor as ready-to-wear shops and the second floor as homes and tailoring spaces. Over time, many veterans sold their houses to these new residents, and Wufenpu became Taipei’s main wholesale clothing hub.