The Railway Department of the Taiwan Governor's Office was the seat of the Taipei Bureau of Machinery in the Qing Dynasty, and was the first modern train maintenance park in Taiwan. After the completion of the new Taipei Station in 1989, the space was left unused after the General Administration of Railways moved out, and since 2006, the National Taiwan Museum has cooperated with the Taiwan Railway Administration to transform the Ministry of Railways into a museum park.
There are six national monuments in the park, including the hall, cafeteria, octagonal building, power supply room, public works room, and wartime command center (air-raid shelter), all of which were built during the Japanese rule. The main building, completed in 1920, is a half-timbered structure made of Alishan cypress, with a red brick and white stone exterior in the style of the historic Queen Anne Revival, and the Octagonal Building, which was the representative work of Matsunosuke Moriyama, a technician of the Taiwan Governor's Office, during his latter years in Taiwan.
The Railway Department Park Heritage Exhibition has planned four thematic exhibition rooms, six digital tours and 20 deconstruction surveys, presenting the historical beauty and architectural features of the Ministry of Railways; from the perspective of restoration records, it takes the audience back to the restoration site to see the restoration process of the craftsmen, techniques and restoration thinking. We are waiting for you to visit the site and discover all the wonderful things about the Ministry of Railways monuments and buildings.
