Taipei’s Railway Workshop to be Preserved

Shanghai destroys, Beijing obliterates…it’s hard not to contrast the non-policy of preservation in mainland China with the growing preservation movement in Taiwan. The latest campaign to win historical preservation status in Taipei is the Taipei Railway Workshops. This decision from the Cultural Heritage Bureau overrules previous plans to give most of the site to a developer. The compound will now be preserved in its entirety, while the historic workshop itself will be renovated to house a railway museum.

Constructed in the 1930s during Japanese colonial rule, the Taipei Railway Workshop was known as the “hospital” for the nation’s trains, and considered the most important railway maintenance depot in Taiwan. The compound features an impressive office block, an engine room and a Japanese-style bath house, as well as substantial gardens – it ain’t just any railway workshop this one!

Very well done to the Taipei Railway Workshop Heritage Conservation Union; tough shit to the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), eager as ever to sell of heritage to grab cash (see the search box under Taiwan to see more examples of the TRA’s venal attempts to dump heritage for fast bucks)