The Historical Evolution of Ximen Honglou

From 65438 to 0895, Taiwan Province Province entered the era of Japanese occupation, and a large number of Japanese immigrants entered Taipei. Considering the distribution of buildings in the city and the geographical location where Mengga and Dadaocheng have formed a market, the Governor's Office of Taiwan Province Province has planned the open space near the West Gate of Taipei as a Japanese residence. In order to meet the needs of Japanese living functions, including Sumitomo, Shinichi, Yamato, Naimu, Yuemachi, Shoumachi, Hamamachi, and Quanmachi (both sides of the first and second sections of Zhonghua Road in Taipei and the pedestrian zone in Ximending), a market building with simple wooden houses has appeared in "Shinichi Street" near the west gate of 1896. The main purpose of this market is to supply the lives of local new immigrants. 1907, the Governor's Office of Taiwan Province Province successfully demolished the Taipei City Wall and West Gate in the process of urban renovation, and further entrusted the famous architect Kondo Jiro to build a formal West Gate Market, providing a more perfect market to replace the existing wooden old market.

Ximen Market, also known as "Xinqijie Market", was officially completed in 1908 and 12, and it is the first official market in Taiwan Province Province. The entrance to the market is a two-story building with an octagonal facade and a height of 8m. On the other hand, the first floor building is made of "cross" red brick, which is about 65 meters "straight" and 45 meters "horizontal", and the internal "width" is 15 meters. In the middle and late period of Japanese occupation, many private bungalow shops and vendors were built around the market. At 19 1 1, there are Daohe Shrine and Oval Park near the market for Japanese to worship. (Today they are all near Ximen Station of Taipei MRT)

The two-story building at the entrance of Ximen Market is now the Red Chamber. Because of its octagonal shape, it is called octagonal hall by local Japanese residents. Eight tiger windows can be seen on the fa? ade of Bajiaotang. The parapet of each facade is decorated with prominent triangular "hills". In addition, the outer wall is decorated with washed stones and imitation stones as horizontal belts. Internally, the octagonal hall is made of reinforced concrete, with octagonal beam-column system and octagonal roof supported by steel brackets. In terms of space, it can include the octagonal hall on the second floor, the lobby on the first floor and eight small shops separated by eight corners.

After the completion of 1908, Ximen Market has been the main consumer market for local Japanese immigrants in Taipei. The eight small shops on the first floor of the red building in Bajiaotang sell leisure stationery and western medicine in addition to the cross-west gate market of the traditional vegetable market. The second floor of Bajiaotang sells Taiwan Province native products, postcards and Japanese native products.

In August, 2008, in order to activate Ximen Honglou, Taipei Cultural Bureau introduced a tea restaurant and provided tea and refreshments in Bajiaolou, providing visitors with a unique tea-drinking culture of historical sites. In the back cross building, the front part is 16, a creative designer's small creative studio with its own brand in Taiwan Province Province, collectively referred to as "16 workshop"; The back end will be stationed in the pub management team and invite independent bands to perform.