From Sanxia to the world: How a Taiwan street tour becomes an exercise in citizen diplomacy

A New Taipei youth program turned Sanxia Old Street into a living classroom where Taiwanese and international youths exchanged not only languages and cultures, but also ideas about community, faith and belonging.

When local youth become the guides

On Sunday Sept. 6, Sanxia Old Street became an unlikely meeting point between Taiwan and the wider world.

Thirteen Taiwanese students who had previously completed the embassy visits under the 2026 New Taipei City International Youth Talent Cultivation Program joined international youths from eight countries — the United States, Czechia, Egypt, the Philippines, India, Tunisia, Vietnam and Türkiye — for an English-language walking tour organized by the Taiwan Digital Diplomacy Association (TDDA) in cooperation with the Youth Department of the New Taipei City Government.

The arrangement was deliberately simple: one Taiwanese participant paired with one international visitor, with the Taiwanese youth responsible for guiding the experience entirely in English.

But the significance lay in the reversal of roles. Rather than listening to foreign diplomats discuss international affairs, as they did in their earlier embassy visits during the program, the Taiwanese students themselves became interpreters of their hometown, explaining the history, architecture and customs of their own community to people encountering them from abroad.

The route passed through Sanxia's historic streets and Zushi Temple, where participants examined the area's distinctive architecture, craftsmanship, and woodcarving traditions.

The visit coincided with the local Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Festival) observances, giving international participants an opportunity to encounter Taiwanese folk traditions not as an abstract cultural exhibit, but as something unfolding around them.

For several participants from different religious backgrounds, entering the temple presented no theological obstacle. They described the experience as cultural rather than religious, allowing them to appreciate the architecture and rituals while maintaining their own beliefs.

A cup of tea, and a conversation

Some of the most revealing moments, however, happened outside the formal itinerary.

At a local tea shop that some participants visited during their free time in Sanxia, the Taiwanese youth did more than translate. They became intermediaries between shopkeepers and foreign visitors as the proprietors made a concerted effort to communicate in English.

The visitors were invited to sample several teas, including a white tea that even one Taiwanese participant said he had never tried before. An Indian participant from Assam — a region itself renowned for tea — was particularly enthusiastic about it.

The exchange was informal, occasionally linguistically imperfect, but precisely for that reason more human than a conventional guided tour.

An American participant who studies in Taiwan eventually bought tea produced by National Taiwan University's Experimental Forest, connecting the experience in Sanxia with NTU, his alma mater.

Such encounters illustrate a less conspicuous form of international engagement. No diplomatic protocol was required. A shopkeeper attempting English, a Taiwanese student helping bridge the conversation and a foreign visitor taking home a Taiwanese product were enough to create a small, reciprocal channel between Taiwan and the outside world.

From soybeans to social enterprise

The tour's second half moved beyond heritage and into contemporary community life.

At CAN, a social enterprise rooted in Sanxia, participants visited the Hidekawa soy-products shop and made tofu using traditional methods.

The experience offered an unexpectedly effective common language: although the explanation was conducted in Chinese, the process itself was sufficiently intuitive that Taiwanese participants could translate and demonstrate as they worked.

Jannah, a participant from the Philippines who had previously visited Taiwan and returned because she enjoyed the country, told TCN that it was her first time making tofu.

“It was a fun experience,” she said, noting that the Taiwanese participants' assistance and the surprising ease of making tofu meant she never felt excluded by the language barrier.

Kayra, a Turkish participant who studies in Belgium and had arrived in Taiwan less than a month earlier, told TCN that the activity offered something she could not easily obtain in Europe or Türkiye.

She said she already knew about tofu, but making it in Taiwan gave it a distinctly local context. Before coming to Taiwan, she could only find tofu at vegetarian restaurants or at exotic Asian markets. In Taiwan, however, it felt like part of people's “real life.”

What particularly interested her was that the experience went beyond food. Participants learned about soybeans, genetically modified varieties and related regulations, while the ingredients used were owned by the social enterprise itself rather than simply purchased from elsewhere.

The story behind CAN also broadened the lesson. Founder Lin Jyun-cheng (林峻丞) has worked on placemaking, local revitalization, education and community development, including efforts to support at-risk young people and create employment opportunities through partnerships with local farmers.

For Kayra, that combination of environmental awareness, education and community engagement was part of what made the visit meaningful.

Seeing Taiwan beyond downtown

For many international participants, Sanxia also represented a different Taiwan.

Jannah said the district had a distinctly different “vibe” from central Taipei, with its historic atmosphere and architecture. Yet she cautioned that a genuine comparison would require more time spent living and interacting locally.

She also praised a less formal feature of life in Taiwan: the online communities where foreigners can post that they are planning to visit a particular city and receive recommendations, itineraries and practical advice from others.

For Jannah, that atmosphere of mutual assistance has become part of what makes the experience of navigating Taiwan as a foreigner more welcoming.

For Kayra, the contrast was even more pronounced. Sanxia was her first excursion beyond downtown Taipei City since arriving in Taiwan. She particularly enjoyed seeing what she described as more “down-to-earth” daily life, local residents and authentic rituals.

She also noticed similarities between Sanxia's brickwork and building materials and those found in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, where she studies — a reminder that cultural exchange does not always begin with obvious differences. Sometimes it starts with recognizing something familiar in an unfamiliar place.

Her discovery of the event was itself a product of Taiwan's international community and the same informal networks that Jannah valued: she stumbled upon it through Facebook.

She said she hoped more high-quality activities of this kind would circulate more widely among foreign communities in Taiwan.

From cultural exchange to community

Both participants also expressed an appetite for something beyond sightseeing.

Jannah told TCN she would welcome more opportunities for community service, including food distribution initiatives for vulnerable people, interaction with local residents and activities that allow international and Taiwanese students to work together while supporting people in need.

Kayra likewise told TCN she would like to participate in more volunteering and people-oriented activities, while also expressing interest in trips involving nature, museums and food.

That desire points to the limits of conventional cultural diplomacy. A tour can introduce a visitor to a temple or a traditional craft, but sustained relationships require opportunities to participate, contribute and converse.

TDDA told TCN that the New Taipei City International Youth Talent Cultivation Program was designed around that principle. After visiting diplomatic missions and engaging with representatives of foreign countries, the Taiwanese students were given a more practical challenge: to take what they had learned about the world and use it to explain Taiwan to the world.

The result was not diplomacy in the formal sense. It was something subtler — and potentially more enduring.

In Sanxia, international exchange took place over tea, temple architecture, and freshly made tofu. Taiwanese youth practiced speaking to the world, while international visitors gained a view of Taiwan beyond its capital and tourist landmarks.

For a program built around cultivating international talent, the most important lesson may therefore have been reciprocal: bridging Taiwan and the world does not always require crossing a border.

Sometimes, it begins with inviting someone to walk your street, taste your tea and understand why your community matters.