Live cameras in Hsinchu, Taiwan

Hsinchu is a city in northwestern Taiwan with more than 450,000 residents, best known around the world as the home of the Hsinchu Science Park. Founded in 1980, the park became the center of Taiwan's semiconductor industry, with companies such as TSMC, MediaTek and United Microelectronics, and next to it stand two leading universities, National Tsing Hua University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. Hsinchu has deep roots too: Han settlers founded the town in 1711, and it got its present name in 1878. The Chenghuang Temple, built in 1747, and its surrounding snack stalls are the heart of the old city, along with the East Gate and its moat park. To the west, a 17-kilometer coastal scenic area runs past the Nanliao fishing harbor.

Approaches to the science park

These are road cameras from Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communications, published through the TDX open data platform. Hsinchu sits where both national freeways come together: National Freeway 1 runs along the east side of the city with a Hsinchu interchange, National Freeway 3 passes through the hills to the south and east, and Provincial Highway 68 links both of them to the coast through system junctions on each freeway. Our map assigns each camera to its nearest place, so the city's page covers interchanges, ramps and the approach roads to the science park. Every camera shows a single picture that is regularly replaced.

Hsinchu runs eight hours ahead of UTC, and summer brings no change of the clock. Its nickname, the Windy City, comes from the strong northeast monsoon that blows across the coast in autumn and winter, which is also why local persimmons and rice noodles are traditionally dried in the wind. Summers are hot and humid, with typhoons possible from July to October. Days end around a quarter to seven in June and around ten past five in December. Weekday rush hours around the science park are the busiest times on these cameras.

Zhubei, the Hsinchu County seat with the high-speed rail station, sits just across the Touqian River, and the Hakka town of Beipu lies in the hills to the southeast.

Sources: Hsinchu - Wikipedia · National Freeway 1 (Taiwan) - Wikipedia · National Freeway 3 (Taiwan) - Wikipedia.