Shuinian Cave Visitor Center - Mountain City Art Museum Introduction
The Lian Dong Community in Shui Nan Dong was a dormitory complex planned and built by the Japanese during the mining period. The houses are neatly arranged and have a complete plumbing system, fire-fighting equipment, post office, police station, hospital, and a grocery store, ensuring a full range of living functions. Currently, the miner community in Lian Dong remains intact, with dormitories allocated according to job rankings. Supervisory staff have housing designed for two households, while the row houses are provided for ordinary workers' families, arranged in sets of four or six. The community features facilities such as restaurants, bathhouses, and sports fields. The old restaurant, a one-story reinforced concrete building, is noted in a "Water Supply Pipeline Map of the Shui Nan Dong Area" retained by the Taiwan Power Company, indicating that this building was originally a hospital. After renovations, it was leased by the Ruifang District Office for use as a community activity center, aiming to establish Lian Dong Village as a genuinely emerging attraction. The New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Bureau chose this site to build a tourist service center to enhance the tourism service in Lian Dong Village. The tourist service center is located in the original community restaurant, while the arts and performance center is repurposed from the former theater, regularly screening films as a primary entertainment activity for residents at that time. Therefore, the architectural concept of this tourist service center emulates the imagery of the Thirteen Levels Ruins, reinforcing the structure and renovating the exterior of the old restaurant. After the renovation, it became the first tourist service center in the nation to incorporate cultural and artistic performances, creating added value and differentiation in tourism services.
