The Shihsanchien Image Guesthouse, a 2,000-square-meter traditional Fujianese building with a 150-year history, was a renowned private academy during the Qing Dynasty. (Wang Meng-hsiao)

Look at Taiwan's guesthouses and you will notice that most feature European architecture or local nostalgic style as their selling points. Shihsanchien Image Guesthouse on the island of Kinmen, however, avoids the cliches and has a photography theme. The proprietor, renowned photographer Tsai Hsien-kuo, has mixed photography with traditional Fujianese architecture to create a warm and evocative feel. He's also given new life to a century-old building.

Chiunglin Village, in the heart of Kinmen, has over 800 years of history. One of the island's oldest settlements, it is a Class 2 national historical site. The 12th-century Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi is said to have visited the island to inspect its schools. He greatly influenced the local culture, and many scholars from Kinmen won success in the imperial examinations. Chiunglin was at its height during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (roughly the 16th through the 19th centuries), and boasted many ancestral halls, family temples, and private academies. Walking among them, one would see nothing but Fujian-style official residences with red brick walls and swallowtail roofs. Though they faded over the centuries, one can still imagine their former glory from the intricate carved beams and painted pillars.

Among these characteristically Fujianese buildings, there is a 2,000-square-meter open courtyard house with red lanterns above the door reading "Shihsanchien" in red characters. This is Taiwan's only guesthouse with a photography theme, the Shihsanchien Image Guesthouse.