Located in the Hocuo settlement at the foot of Mount Taiwu, the Kinmen Sweet Potato Story House is a rural tourism destination where visitors can walk slowly and listen to history. The name “Hocuo” originates from the Hokkien pronunciation of “Wacuo” (tile house). In the early days, the village was built according to the low-lying terrain, with seven ponds scattered like stars and residences rising alongside them; from afar, the tiled roofs looked like layers spreading across the mountain’s base. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this location served as a vital gateway in southern Kinmen where ancient official roads and ferries met, making it a bustling commercial hub.
Introduction
As transportation patterns shifted and the military era arrived, Hocuo became quieter, yet it nurtured unique cultural landscapes. Taiwanese Opera took root here, bringing warmth and laughter to wartime Kinmen. Ancient houses, ponds, ruins of commercial streets, and wall murals together form a village that carries historical memories. Today’s Hocuo is not noisy but full of stories, making it an ideal Kinmen rural landscape for deep exploration.
At the Kinmen Sweet Potato Story House, visitors can register for half-day or full-day agritourism itineraries. Accompanied by guides, they can stroll through the Hocuo settlement, enter the fields to learn about sweet potato cultivation, and experience the wisdom of early Kinmen people living in harmony with the land by digging sweet potatoes and picking sweet potato leaves.
During the experience, visitors can also handmade traditional “Tu-ren-guo” (peanut-filled cakes), feeling how sweet potatoes are transformed from dough into festive snacks and daily staples. Along the way, one can admire Minnan-style ancient houses and Taiwanese Opera mural walls, occasionally encounter Kinmen yellow cattle or Shigandang (stone spirit tablets), and even discover traces of otter activity, adding ecological surprises to the tour.
Characteristics
Grains
Before Kaoliang liquor became famous, sweet potato wine was Kinmen’s most representative fragrance. The Story House replicates traditional brewing methods and uses Kaoliang distillery grains as fertilizer to grow sweet potatoes, producing a sweet potato wine with a faint Kaoliang aroma, condensing two periods of Kinmen’s history into a single glass.
At the end of the journey, visitors can taste rich local flavors, including sweet potato wine sausages, sweet potato wine salted pork, pickled radish, “Peng-guo” (puffed cakes), and rock oyster omelets. They can also purchase sweet potato wine, sweet potato crackers, and unique souvenirs. By using a single sweet potato, the Kinmen Sweet Potato Story House connects settlement memories, rural life, and travel experiences.
Information
TEL
+886-82-354957
Address
No. 72, Hecuo, Jinsha Township, Kinmen County 890007, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
