Landmark · West Central
Chuan Mei Theater
全美戲院
Photo: Mrmarkertw, CC0A second-run cinema on Yongfu Road that still advertises its films with hand-painted posters.
History
It opened in 1950 as the First Quancheng Theater (第一全成戲院), on a site where wartime bombing had destroyed a row of shophouses. Wu Yi-yuan and his wife bought it in 1969 and renamed it Chuan Mei, and in 1971 it became a second-run house showing two films for one ticket. Its posters are painted by Yan Zhenfa, the only one of his master's apprentices still painting. The director Ang Lee has said it was the cinema he went to most as a high school student.
Eat nearby
博仁堂Po Jen Tang
A century-old Chinese herbal pharmacy turned tonic-soup restaurant, run by the family's sixth generation. The old medicine cabinets and a bronze acupuncture figure remain, and old shop plaques now serve as tables.
添厚Eat to Fat
Home-style Taiwanese cooking in a lane by the Grand Mazu Temple. The owners are Mazu devotees, the decor follows the goddess, and the restaurant closes during temple festivities.
阿美飯店Amei
Traditional Tainan restaurant, opened by Tsai Chung-lien (蔡崇廉) over sixty years ago, cooking classic banquet dishes and century-old recipes. Porcelain plates from its early years are now on display.
小公園擔仔麵Small Park Danzai Noodles
This noodle shop has run for over 70 years and takes its name from the small park it first stood beside. The owner still cooks the noodles sitting at a low table, the old way.
欣欣餐廳Hsin Hsin Restaurant (A-Tu Shi)
Old-style Taiwanese banquet restaurant on Minzu Road, founded in 1975 and counted with A-Hsia and A-Mei among Tainan's three big Taiwanese restaurants. Founder chef A-Tu (吳火塗), born in 1947, still cooks.
落成米糕Lo Cheng Migao
The founder sold stir-fried eel and squid and, by chance, added migao in 1985. The sticky rice soon outsold everything else, and the shop has concentrated on migao and sishen soup ever since.