"Happiness Brand Bicycle" and the century-old general store are long-standing Beitou shops that have accompanied generations of Beitou residents through their childhood. In the 1940s and 1950s, bicycles were the most essential mode of transportation in Taiwan, and the most famous brand was Taipei's "Happiness Brand" (SUPER CYCLE). On Beitou's old street, there is still a Happiness Brand bicycle shop.

Look at its trademark SUPER CYCLE - can you feel its former glory?

The Happiness Brand bicycle shop is located at No. 27 Zhongzheng Street. Mr. Chen Ching-Lin started renting the space here over fifty years ago to open the bicycle shop. Back then, a bicycle cost over three hundred dollars, equivalent to two months of a civil servant's salary - making it quite an expensive mode of transportation that most people could not afford. However, nowadays cars and motorcycles fill the streets, replacing bicycles as the primary transportation. Bicycles have become inexpensive, and when slightly damaged or worn, people simply buy new ones rather than repair them, so business is not what it used to be.

According to Mr. Chen, the old houses on both sides of the bicycle shop used to be shops selling all kinds of household goods - shoes, soy sauce, straw raincoats, pots, pans, and more - just like today's convenience stores.

The shops' wooden windows were made of individual wooden boards that could be removed to open the storefront for business. Isn't this creative design from the past quite ingenious?