Highways & Byways: In search of the perfect ‘sanheyuan’
Found throughout rural Taiwan, these iconic ‘three structures around a yard’ get their name because they comprise connected single-story structures on three sides of a courtyard
By Steven Crook / Contributing reporter
This article doesn’t focus on a destination so much as a key motif of rural Taiwan: The often humble, but sometimes grand, sanheyuan (三合院).
When I say I adore sanheyuan, I speak from experience. My wife and I lived in this kind of traditional house for just over two years. To be specific, we rented slightly less than half of one.