Tainan Public Meeting Hall

In the middle of Tainan City lies the former garden of the wealthy 19th century gentry Mr. Shang-Shin Wu. Today, Wu’s garden has been turned into a public park, offering rest and respite in the busy center of Taiwan. The garden was created in 1829, when Wu wanted to construct a classical Chinese garden, which included a pavilion, a pond, a rock wall and a small cave. The garden became much celebrated around Taiwan and was renowned as the place where elites would gather and relax. In 1911, the southern part of Wu’s garden began to be used as a public meeting hall, to fulfill the need for one in the city of Tainan. At the time, Taiwan was ruled by the Japanese, meaning that the architecture of the hall today retains evidence of many Japanese influences, which at the time was utilizing aspects of European and North American architecture. Over the years, the building has been through many reincarnations, even being used as an education center after it was a meeting hall. Today it is also called Wuyuan Cultural and Art Museum. Although the museum itself is not much to get excited about, as there is just one small public display all in Chinese that explains the history of the building, it is still worth a visit. Listed as a city-grade historical site in 1998, the Tainan Public Meeting Hall is a place to come if you are interested in history and Taiwan’s changing identities over the centuries.