National Taiwan Museum - Nanmen Park Introduction
During the Japanese colonial era, the Governor-General of Taiwan established a monopoly on opium in 1897 and gradually included camphor (1899), salt (1899), tobacco (1906), and alcohol (1922) in the state monopoly system. The "Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau Taipei South Gate Factory" was established in 1899 as an important production base for the manufacturing and testing of the two major monopoly products: camphor and opium. It was renamed the South Gate Factory in 1901 and changed its name to Taipei South Gate Factory in 1931, becoming the only state-owned camphor processing factory in Taiwan during the Japanese era. After the war, this factory was taken over by the government. Following the February 28 Incident in 1947, the tobacco and alcohol industries in Taiwan were reduced to three items: tobacco, alcohol, and camphor. In 1952, the factory was renamed Taiwan Provincial Camphor Refinery, and in 1956, it was again renamed Taiwan Provincial Camphor Factory. Camphor was opened for private ownership in December 1967, leading to the factory's closure. Today, the existing structures include a storage warehouse (Little White House), a camphor warehouse (Red House), and a 400-sho water reservoir, with the remaining site area being less than one-eighth of that during the Japanese occupation. In 1998, the South Gate Factory was designated as a national historic site by the Ministry of the Interior. Starting in 2004, the National Museum of Taiwan, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture (formerly the Council for Cultural Affairs), carried out a capital cultural park project, reorganizing historical spaces in the city into museum spaces as part of the "Taiwan Museum System." In 2006, the land and buildings of the factory were transferred to the National Museum of Taiwan by the National Property Administration, repurposing the historic buildings into exhibition halls and constructing a new storage facility, with planning and design for the restoration and reuse overseen by the firm of architect Jan Yi-Chung. The restoration process of the factory resembles an anatomical study of architectural history, involving collaboration across various professional fields such as architectural design, structure, mechanical and electrical equipment, preservation, archaeology, traditional crafts, history, and engineering.
