Taiwan Railway Hotel

The Taiwan Railway Hotel (台湾鉄道ホテル) was the first and most prestigious Western-style hotel in colonial Taiwan. Constructed by the Railway Department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan, the hotel broke ground in the summer of 1907 and was completed in October 1908, just in time for the inauguration ceremony of the island's North-South Trunk Railway Line on October 24, 1908. The hotel's first guest of honor was Prince Kan'in Kotohito, who traveled to Taiwan to preside over the railway's opening ceremony.

Designed by a team led by architect Matsugasaki Tsumunaga (松崎萬長), a Japanese nobleman educated in Germany, together with Nomura Ichirō and others, the hotel featured a distinctive French-style mansard roof atop a three-story German-influenced red brick structure. The building occupied a footprint of approximately 620 tsubo (about 2,050 square meters) on a site of 3,069 tsubo (about 10,150 square meters) and contained 30 guest rooms. With rates that in the 1930s ranged from 3 to 27 yen per night depending on the room, it was patronized mainly by colonial elites, high-ranking officials, and international visitors.

The hotel is credited with several firsts for Taiwan, reportedly including the island's first passenger elevator (called a 物籠) and its first Western-style bar, along with a reading room, smoking room and barber shop. The interior was appointed with crystal chandeliers, modern electrical systems, and both Western and Japanese-style bathing facilities. Notable guests over its 37-year history included the statesman Itagaki Taisuke (1914), Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi (1920), and the Chinese writer Yu Dafu (1936).

Located at Omote-chō (表町) 2-chome, 7-ban in Taipei — directly opposite the original Taipei Station — the hotel occupied a prime location in the colonial capital's commercial center. A second Railway Hotel was later established at Tainan Station, at which point the Taipei location was formally renamed the 'Taipei Railway Hotel' to distinguish the two properties.

On May 31, 1945, during the devastating Taipei Air Raids carried out by the United States Army Air Forces in the final months of World War II, the hotel was struck by bombs and destroyed. The main building was never rebuilt, although the business resumed on a small scale in a surviving annex, renamed the Taiwan Railway Hotel (臺灣鐵路飯店) in February 1946, until the premises were reclaimed in 1952. The site was subsequently developed into the Shin Kong Life Tower (新光人壽保險摩天大樓), completed in 1993, and the adjacent Asia Plaza Building (亞洲廣場大樓). In 2020, the National Taiwan Museum organized a special exhibition commemorating the hotel's history, recognizing its significance as a symbol of colonial modernity and Taiwan's early hospitality industry.