Cafes in Tainan

• Photography

Many coffee shops in Tainan are operated in old houses. Before 2010, many old houses in Taiwan, especially in Tainan, were regarded as cheap and had no value to be maintained. As a result, some turned into ruins, and some were reconstructed into new buildings.

During the same time, many people either returned or moved to Tainan to open their shops as the estate prices were affordable. Many of them were operated in old houses and renovated into the styles they liked as if those coffee shops were their living room.

I was surprised at first by how those shop owners renovated old houses and how different the ambience is in each coffee shop. The relationship between owners and customers is also closer than in Taipei. It is easy to become friends in real life if they get to know each other more.

These coffee shops stand for a particular period in Taiwan and a culture which can only be cultivated in Tainan. These old houses also taught me more about where I was born.