Taipei Evil-Warding & Villain-Dispelling Escape
When petty people are dogging your steps, nothing seems to go right, and there's a knot of grievance sitting in your chest, this is the quiet reset of a trip to take. Start at the Xinzhuang Dizang Temple, where the Civil and Martial Great Sacred Lords — served by the Guanjiangshou spirit-general troupe that was born here — specialize in warding off evil and clearing away the bad energy and the backstabbers clinging to you. Then take the MRT to the Xia-Hai City God Temple in Dadaocheng, where the City God weighs right and wrong and sets things straight. Two stops in half a day: clear out the ill feeling you've been carrying, and walk it alone at an unhurried pace — that is exactly enough.
🚇 By MRT and on foot; an EasyCard is easiest. Both stops sit on the same Zhonghe–Xinlu Line, about a 12-minute ride apart.
🙏 Pray for: Warding off evil, dispelling petty people, and cutting loose old entanglements
The fierce-faced Guanjiangshou (spirit-general troupe) you see at Taiwanese temple processions was born right here, at the Xinzhuang Dizang Temple. Commonly called the 'Great Sacred Temple,' it is dedicated to Dizang (Ksitigarbha) and the Civil and Martial Great Sacred Lords (Wenwu Dazhongye), and it specializes in warding off evil, handling lawsuits, and finding lost things — the most important center of exorcism belief in northern Taiwan. If there are backstabbers, legal troubles, or a run of bad luck you can't shake, coming here to ask the Great Sacred Lords and the Guanjiangshou for a 'clearing out' is the first step this route sets for you.
💡 The Dizang Temple keeps a steady stream of incense, and the temple provides gold paper and instructions. Praying to ward off evil and dispel petty people has its own way of doing things — if you're unsure, ask a temple volunteer. The Guanjiangshou troupe of the annual 'Xinzhuang Grand Worship' (the Great Sacred Lords' procession, on the 1st of the fifth lunar month) is the most striking, but also the most crowded; for quiet, pick a weekday.
🙏 Pray for: A clear judgment of right and wrong, fair dealing, and peace of mind
The Xia-Hai City God Temple is famous for its Yue Lao, but the City God it enshrines has a very different primary role: he governs a district's rewards and punishments and judges right from wrong. When you've been wronged, crossed by petty people, or left with an unsettled heart, you come to report it to the City God — what you're really asking for is the calm of trusting that fairness rests in the god's own reckoning. The first stop warded off the evil and dispelled the villains; here you lay right and wrong before the City God to weigh, so you can let go and move on.
💡 The temple is small and the worshippers unending. When you report to the City God, lay out the wrong and the wish plainly — what you seek is a settled certainty and a sense of release. After praying, the temple offers a cup of peace tea; drink it before you go. Then stroll down Dihua Street — the century-old dried-goods street is the best kind of scenery for winding down.
Hour-by-Hour Plan
- 09:30 Xinzhuang Dizang Temple (the Great Sacred Lords & the Guanjiangshou — warding off evil and dispelling petty people)
- 10:20 MRT from Xinzhuang Station to Daqiaotou Station (about 12 minutes)
- 10:50 Xia-Hai City God Temple (the City God — a clear judgment of right and wrong, and fair dealing)
- 11:35 Stroll Dihua Street in Dadaocheng, and lunch
What to Eat Nearby
🍜 Dadaocheng — Cisheng Temple Courtyard & Dihua Street
In Dadaocheng, home to the Xia-Hai City God Temple, beyond the dried goods and traditional pastries of Dihua Street, those in the know turn into the food street in front of Cisheng Temple — a long row of tables and chairs under an old banyan tree, with fish soup, fried snacks, and pork-rib soup over rice. It is one of the few places left in Taipei where you can eat quietly in a temple courtyard's shade, a fitting spot to sit alone once the ill feeling has been cleared away.
🍜 Xinzhuang — Temple-Street Old Flavors
Xinzhuang Temple Street (around Xinzhuang Road), where the Dizang Temple stands, is one of the oldest market streets in northern Taiwan. Salted 'guangbing' biscuits, traditional noodle dishes, and old pastry shops here carry flavors from businesses decades old — after praying to the Great Sacred Lords, stop for a bite on the old street before moving on to the next stop.
📝 Both stops are free to enter. Warding off evil and dispelling petty people is a folk tradition for finding peace of mind — the point of this trip isn't to resent anyone, but to clear out the ill feeling and grievance you've been carrying, let it go, and set yourself moving forward again. For quiet, pick a weekday morning and avoid the 1st and 15th of the lunar month and weekends. Afterward, Dadaocheng's dried-goods shops and the temple-courtyard food street by Cisheng Temple make a fine extension; if you're spent, save it for next time.