Taiwan Land Bank - Tainan

Located in Tainan's central-western area, home to the most historical sites in Tainan, a building stands just opposite to the newly re-opened Hayashi Department Store. It is Tainan Land Bank, the Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank (DKB) Tainan branch during the Japanese Colonial Era. If you pay attention to details, you may realize the bank looks much the same as Taipei's Land Bank Exhibition Hall. In fact, the two sister buildings were the Taipei and Tainan branches belonging to DKB.

The building resembling classical temples has an architectural design that combines Japanese, American, and the ancient Greek style. On the exterior columns, you can find the character swastika (卍), the pattern of mums, and Japanese Gods of Fortune lining up after one another as decoration. Unfortunately, the original Mayan totems on these exterior walls were replaced by the logo of Land Bank during a refurbishment. Maybe the building is exactly a witness of DKB’s rises and falls under the Japanese rule and its own transformation into today’s Land Bank. Since World War II, the building has been listed as a Tainan city’s historic site and is still conducting the mission of a bank under the name of Land Bank.