All historic sites
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217 sites · page 9 of 10
Taoyuan Shrine (Taoyuan Martyrs' Shrine)
桃園神社
The Taoyuan Shrine (桃園神社), built in 1938 during the Japanese colonial period, is the best-preserved Japanese Shinto shrine remaining in Taiwan. Originally constructed as part of the Kōminka movement to promote Japanese identity among Taiwanese, the shrine was converted into the Taoyuan Martyrs' Shrine (忠烈祠) after World War II. Unlike most Japanese shrines in Taiwan that were demolished after 1945, the Taoyuan Shrine survived due to lack of funds for demolition and was designated a historic monument in 1994.
Tongxiao Shrine
通霄神社
Tongxiao Shrine is a well-preserved Japanese colonial-era Shinto shrine in Tongxiao Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan, built in 1937 on Tiger Head Mountain. One of the few surviving shrine complexes in Taiwan, it retains its worship hall, stone lanterns, and torii base, and was converted into a martyrs' shrine after Japan's surrender in 1945.
Toyoda Immigrant Village Ruins
豐田移民村跡
Ruins of a Japanese government-sponsored immigrant village established in 1913 in Shoufeng Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. One of the best-preserved colonial-era settlement sites in eastern Taiwan, featuring the former Toyoda Shrine (now Biliansi Temple), original torii gate, stone lanterns, guardian lion statues, and remnants of Japanese-era irrigation infrastructure.
Western Trunk Line Coastal Section (Dachia–Changhua)
縦貫線海線（台中海線・大甲—彰化）
The Coastal Line (海線) of Taiwan's Western Trunk Railway, completed in 1922, was built between Zhunan and Changhua along the island's western seaboard as a strategic alternative to the congested Mountain Line (山線). Designed for military transport redundancy and industrial freight capacity, it became essential wartime infrastructure ensuring uninterrupted north-south logistics across Taiwan.
Wushe Branch Office of the Nōkō District Police
能高郡警察課霧社分室跡
Noko District (能高郡) was the Japanese colonial administrative unit covering the indigenous mountain areas of central Taiwan; its district office (能高郡役所) stood in Puli, while the district police kept a branch office (霧社分室) at Wushe. During the Wushe Incident of October 1930 — the largest armed indigenous uprising against Japanese rule in Taiwan — the district head was among those killed, and Wushe, retaken on 29 October, became the command post from which Japanese forces coordinated their counterattack against Seediq warriors led by Chief Mona Rudao.
Wushe Public School Site
霧社公学校跡
The site of the former Wushe (Musha) Public School in Ren'ai Township, Nantou County, where the Wushe Incident — the largest armed anti-Japanese colonial uprising in Taiwan — began on October 27, 1930. Seediq warriors led by Chief Mona Rudao attacked during a Japanese athletics day ceremony, killing 134 Japanese nationals in the initial assault.
Xiluo Bridge
西螺大橋
A landmark bridge spanning the Zhuoshui River in Yunlin County, Taiwan. Designed by Japanese colonial engineers, with the contract let in December 1937 and work begun in 1938, construction was halted during WWII when Japan requisitioned steel materials for the war effort. Thirty piers and two abutments were completed during the Japanese period. The bridge was finally completed in 1953 with US aid, stretching 1,939 meters and hailed at the time as the longest bridge in the Far East.
Ximen Red House (Former Ximen Market)
西門紅楼（旧西門市場）
Often described as Taiwan's first government-built public market, completed in 1908 during the Japanese colonial era. Designed by architect Kondō Jūrō (近藤十郎) of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, the distinctive red brick octagonal structure (八角堂) in Taipei's Wanhua District is one of the most iconic Japanese colonial-era commercial buildings in Taiwan. It survived WWII bombing and is now a designated municipal heritage site and cultural-creative hub.
Xiyu Ammunition Depot (Penghu)
西嶼弾薬本庫
A rare early Japanese colonial-era underground ammunition depot complex in Nei'an Village, Xiyu Township, Penghu County, Taiwan. Built in 1902 as part of the Penghu Island Fortress system, the facility comprises cavern-style and above-ground cooling magazines lined with copper sheeting for electromagnetic shielding. Designated a national historic site in 2024, the depot opened to the public as a military culture park in 2021.
Yuanlin (Inrin) POW Camp
台湾俘虜収容所員林分所
Allied prisoner-of-war camp operated by the Imperial Japanese Army in the town of Inrin (員林, present-day Yuanlin City), Changhua County (then Taichū Prefecture), Taiwan. The site actually comprised two distinct facilities: the Inrin Camp, opened on 1 July 1944 in an old hotel for approximately 100 sick POWs from the Taichū (Taichung) Camp, which had been evacuated after a typhoon flood; and a Temporary Camp, set up in a local school in November 1944 to house 382 American and British survivors of the hellship Hokusen Maru. The Inrin Camp closed on 5 March 1945, with the remaining 43 prisoners moved to Toroku Camp; the Temporary Camp operated until 16 January 1945 when POWs were shipped onward to Japan. No POW deaths were recorded at the Temporary Camp.
Yuli Shrine Ruins
玉里社
Yuli Shrine (Tamasato-sha) is one of the best-preserved Shinto shrine ruins in Hualien County, eastern Taiwan. Built in 1928 during the Japanese colonial period, the shrine served as a centre of Shinto worship in the southern Hualien region. After Japan's withdrawal from Taiwan in 1945, the main hall was demolished, but two torii gates, 17 stone lanterns, and the sandō (approach path) survive intact, earning county-level historic site designation in 2008.
Zuoying Old City (Old City of Fongshan County)
左営旧城（鳳山県旧城）
A Qing-dynasty walled city in present-day Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, first enclosed with earthen walls in 1722 and rebuilt in stone in 1825–26; it is often billed as Taiwan's first stone city, although Changhua's masonry walls are recorded as earlier. During the Japanese colonial period, the walled city was designated a military restricted zone to protect the adjacent Zuoying Naval Port from 1940 onward, with over fifty households forcibly relocated and the West Gate demolished. The Japanese Imperial Navy deployed Shinyo suicide motorboat squadrons within the old city area during WWII. Designated a first-class (now national) historic site in 1985, the East, North, and South Gates survive along with portions of the stone walls.
Ershui Station (Former Erbashuei Station)
二水驛
Ershui Station, originally opened in 1905 as Erbashuei Station (二八水驛) during the Japanese colonial period, is a historically significant railway junction in Changhua County, Taiwan. Located at the point where the Jiji Branch Line diverges from the Western Trunk Line, it served as a strategic transport hub for materials heading into central Taiwan's mountainous interior. The current reinforced concrete station building, designed by Japanese architect Utsushiki Takeo (宇敷赳夫) and completed in 1935, replaced an earlier wooden structure and is now a designated county-level historic site. During the colonial era, three railway systems — the trunk line, the Jiji Line, and a sugar-company light railway — converged at Ershui, making it a critical logistics node for both civilian and military transport.
Former Jodo-shu Taipei Betsu-in (Now Shandao Temple)
淨土宗台北別院（現・善導寺）
Originally established in 1895 as the Jodo-shu (Pure Land Buddhism) propagation center in Taipei, the Jodo-shu Taipei Betsu-in was the headquarters of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism in colonial Taiwan. The current reinforced-concrete main hall was designed by architect Hatakeyama Kisaburo and completed in 1937. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the temple was seized by the Taipei municipal government and later transferred to Chinese Buddhist management, becoming Shandao Temple (善導寺). It is described as the largest surviving establishment among the Japanese-era Buddhist temples of Taipei, although the 1937 main hall itself was demolished in 1998.
Fuguijiao Lighthouse
富貴角灯台
Fuguijiao Lighthouse, located at Cape Fugui in Shimen District, New Taipei City, is the northernmost lighthouse in Taiwan. Built in 1897 by the Japanese colonial government as the second lighthouse constructed during the colonial period, it features a distinctive octagonal tower with black-and-white horizontal stripes designed for visibility in the area's frequent fog. Damaged by Allied air raids during World War II, it was rebuilt in stages and restored to its original striped appearance by 1962.
Guanziling Hot Spring
関子嶺温泉
One of Taiwan's "Four Great Hot Springs" during the Japanese colonial period, discovered by Japanese troops in 1898 in present-day Baihe District, Tainan. Famous for its rare alkaline mud spring water (泥漿溫泉), the area was developed as a resort destination with bathhouses and inns under Japanese rule and came to be styled "the foremost spirit spring under heaven" (天下第一靈泉).
Hokuto District Office
北斗郡役所
The former site of the Hokuto District Office (北斗郡役所) in Beidou Township, Changhua County, Taiwan. Established in 1920 as the administrative center of Hokuto District under Taichū Prefecture during Japanese colonial rule, it governed eight townships across southern Changhua with a population of over 170,000. The original building no longer stands; the site is now occupied by the Beidou Police Station.
Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields
北門井仔脚瓦盤塩田
Taiwan's oldest surviving salt field, established in 1818 during the Qing dynasty and operated under the Japanese colonial government's salt monopoly system from 1895 to 1945. During WWII, salt production here supported Japan's military and industrial needs. Now restored as a cultural heritage tourism site in Beimen District, Tainan.
Qidong Street Japanese Official Residences
幸町職務官舎群（齊東街日式宿舎）
A cluster of preserved Japanese colonial-era official residences along Qidong Street in Taipei's Zhongzheng District, originally built in the 1920s-1940s as the Saiwaichō (幸町) civil servant housing group for high-ranking colonial officials. Among the first batch of Japanese dormitory groups in Taiwan to receive area-wide preservation under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, the site is regarded as Taipei's best-preserved quarter of historic buildings, housing the Taiwan Literature Base and the Taipei Qin Hall.
Qishan Old Street Stone Arcade
旗山老街（石拱圈亭仔腳）
Qishan Old Street (旗山老街) in Kaohsiung's Qishan District is one of the best-preserved Japanese colonial-era commercial streets in southern Taiwan. Developed from 1903 under Japan's urban improvement plan ("市街改正"), the street features distinctive Baroque-style facades built between 1925 and 1930 by wealthy banana and sugar merchants. Its most iconic feature is the stone arcade (石拱圈亭仔腳), a covered walkway constructed of sandstone arches — each arch said to be composed of 33 cut sandstone blocks — dating to the 1910s–1920s. The street flourished alongside the sugar industry and the sugar railway that reached Qishan in 1910, which transported sugar, bananas, and goods to Kaohsiung's port. Designated a historic building in 2005, Qishan Old Street remains a vibrant commercial district and a living testament to Taiwan's Japanese colonial architectural heritage.
Songshan Brick Kiln (Taiwan Renga Co. Matsuyama Factory)
松山煉瓦工場（台湾煉瓦株式会社松山工場）
A major brick kiln factory in the Songshan area of Taipei operated by Taiwan Renga Co. (台灣煉瓦株式會社), which was founded in 1913 and acquired the Songshan works in 1918. The factory produced TR-branded red bricks used in colonial-era construction across Taiwan, employing Hoffmann kilns (八卦窯) for continuous mass production. The Taiwan Renga Company, founded by Ushiroku Shintarō (後宮信太郎), was the dominant brick manufacturer during the Japanese colonial period, supplying building materials for government offices, railways, and infrastructure throughout the island.
Taichung Second Public Market
台中市第二小売市場（新富町市場）
Public market built in 1917 by the Japanese colonial government in the Shintomichō (新富町) district of Taichung, Taiwan. Designed with a distinctive hexagonal central tower and three radial wings, it served as the primary marketplace for Japanese residents and affluent customers, earning the nickname "the Japanese market." Rebuilt in 1936 after a fire, the market remains one of the oldest surviving public market buildings in central Taiwan and continues to operate as an active traditional market with over 300 vendors.
Taiwan Shrine Sandō (Chokushi Road)
臺灣神社參道（勅使街道）
The Taiwan Shrine Sandō was the grand ceremonial approach road leading from central Taihoku (Taipei) to the Taiwan Grand Shrine on Jiantan Mountain beside Maruyama. Originally constructed in 1901 and known as Chokushi Kaidō (Imperial Envoy's Road), the route was significantly widened in the 1930s into a broad tree-lined boulevard, reported as about 40 meters wide, to project Japanese imperial authority. Lined with stone lanterns, torii gates, and culminating at the Meiji Bridge over the Keelung River, it served as the sacred axis connecting the colonial capital to its highest-ranking Shinto shrine. After Japan's defeat, the road was renamed in 1946 Zhongshan North Road (中山北路) after Sun Yat-sen, and it remains one of Taipei's most important north-south thoroughfares today.
Xinfu Market (Shintomicho Public Market)
新富町食料品小売市場
A horseshoe-shaped modernist public market built in 1935 during the Japanese colonial period in Wanhua District, Taipei. One of the best-preserved Japanese-era public market buildings in Taiwan, it was designated a Taipei City historic site in 2006 and reopened in 2017 as the U-mkt (新富町文化市場), a cultural and creative space combining food education, exhibitions, and community programs.