Beitou Cultural Artifacts Museum

Beitou Cultural Artifacts Museum

The Beitou Cultural Artifacts Museum is located in Beitou District, Taipei City, and was originally built in 1920 during the Japanese colonial period. It initially served as a hot spring hotel called “Kashan Hotel.” After the Republic of China government relocated to Taiwan, it was taken over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and successively transformed into the “Kashan Barracks” for accommodating military personnel and civilians, the “Kashan Guesthouse” for hosting guests, and was later auctioned to the public. It was then converted from a private mansion into the “Home of Taiwanese Folk Artifacts,” and in 1984 was officially renamed the “Beitou Cultural Artifacts Museum,” becoming one of Taipei City’s designated historic monuments.

Nestled on a quiet hillside in Beitou, the museum spans approximately 800 pyeong and is surrounded by greenery. Its grounds feature Taiwan’s only remaining two-story all-wooden Japanese-style main building and the auxiliary Tueranjyu guesthouse. The elegant setting once attracted many period dramas for location shooting, and the museum itself gained the nickname “Guyue Manor” from a film of the same name. Despite changing ownership and names over time, the scenic beauty has remained unchanged. Since 2002, the Fulu Cultural Foundation engaged experts in historic restoration to renovate the site over a period of more than five years, and it reopened to the public in 2008 with a completely renewed look. Now reborn, the Beitou Cultural Artifacts Museum has become a diverse cultural and creative park in the suburbs of Taipei, integrating historic architecture, exhibitions of Taiwanese and Japanese culture, and special displays of Taiwanese indigenous art.

National Taiwan Folk Arts Museum

Why go: One of the most renowned multicultural creative parks in the suburbs of Taipei