Zhongli Train Station

Zhongli Elementary Teachers Dorms (壢小故事森林)

Having recently celebrated the 120th anniversary of its founding, Zhongli Elementary School finds itself on a very exclusive list of educational institutions in Taiwan with such a long and storied history. 

Plans for the construction of “Zhongli Public School” (中壢公學校) started in 1898 (明治31年), shortly after the Japanese took control of Taiwan. The school opened two years later in 1900 and became one of Taoyuan’s (and Northern Taiwan’s) first public educational institutions. 

To celebrate the 120 year anniversary of the school, festivities were held throughout the year and the school announced plans for some restoration projects that would modernize and beautify the campus. 

To coincide with the anniversary, the Taoyuan City Government started a restoration project on the historic teachers dormitories that were once used by the staff at the school during the Japanese Colonial era.

The plan was to have them ready to reopen to the public in conjunction with the celebrations for the school’s milestone anniversary. 

With such a long and storied history, you’d think that finding information about the school would be pretty easy, but that’s not actually the case.

From what little I’ve found from the school’s own literature is that “Zhongli Public School” opened in 1900 and as the number of students steadily increased over the years, several “branch” schools had to be constructed nearby communities - all of which still exist today.

In total, five branch schools were constructed around town, which have all since changed their names and are now known as Chung-Ping Elementary (中平國小), Hsin-Ming Elementary (新明國小), Hsin-Jie Elementary (新街國小), Longgang Elementary (龍岡國小) and Nan-Shih Elementary (南勢國小). 

If you’ve lived in the area as long as I have then you’re probably aware that these schools (in most cases) were the basis for the formation of a community that used the same name as the school.

Most notably “Hsin-Ming Elementary” is known for its popular neighbour, the Zhongli Night Market (新明夜市), which is actually named “Hsin-Ming Night Market” and the Hsin-Ming Traditional Market, which is home to two of the city’s most famous restaurants, Hsin-Ming Beef Noodles (新明牛肉麵) and Yong-Chuan Beef Noodles (永川牛肉麵). 

In the decades since the colonial era ended, the school has changed its name a few times, but no matter what it is called, it is still the first educational institution opened to the public and is an important part of the local history.  

Subtle name changes

  • 1947 (民國36年) - 中壢國民學校

  • 1968 (民國57年) - 中壢國民小學

  • 2014 (民國103年) - 桃園市中壢區中壢國民小學

The topic today however isn’t really about the school itself, but the Japanese-style teachers dormitories that were constructed nearby. 

As I’ve already mentioned, the growing number of students wanting to take part in the public education system, it became necessary to construct branch schools as well as homes for the staff working at the schools to live. 

Constructing “dormitories” (員工宿舍) for employees was a service that the Japanese Colonial Powers provided, especially for civil servants and those working within important industries.

There would have been dormitories that housed police, government officials, teachers, principals, railway workers and many of the engineers who came to Taiwan to help develop the island. 

Today, all over Taiwan many of these dorms are being restored and reopened to the public as tourist destinations in an attempt to help people learn more about an important part of Taiwan’s history.

So lets take a look at the newly reopened Zhongli Elementary School teachers dormitories, which have been (randomly) renamed the “Zhongli Forest Story House” (壢小故事森林). 

Zhongli Elementary Teachers Dorms (中壢國小日式宿) 

You might think that like most school dorms that the teachers dorms would have been constructed somewhere on campus, but in order to provide the teaching staff with a bit of privacy, they were constructed on a nice plot of tree-covered land nearby. 

Constructed in 1917 (大正6年), the three Japanese-style homes are on a plot of land that is about 871 square meters large and would have provided staff with easy access to the school as well as the nearby train station and whatever amenities would have been available in the downtown area at that time. 

Interestingly, from a design perspective, even though there are three buildings, each of them was constructed somewhat differently as they all served different functions. One of them was a typical Japanese style family home, while the other two were more dorm-like in their set-up.

The two single-floor buildings, which are referred to as “Building A” (A棟) and “Building B” (B棟) are typical Japanese-style homes that were constructed with Taiwanese Cypress (台灣檜木) and have beautiful black Kyoto-style roof tiles (黑瓦). 

Building C” (C棟) on the other hand is a bit different from the other two and even though it maintains aspects of Japanese architectural design, it was constructed with brick, has two floors, a nice patio space on the second level and a roof that was constructed using the same type of red tiles (閩式紅瓦) that you’ll see on many older Taiwanese buildings. 

The buildings were used by the Japanese staff of the elementary school from 1917-1945 and then afterwards became dormitories for the teaching staff hired by the new regime for the next few decades before they were more or less abandoned.

Today the dorms have been completely restored and are part of a newly established culture park known as the Zhongli Forest Story House

Now that they’re no longer dormitories, the government had to find a use for the space, so each of the buildings now serves a specific purpose. 

  1. Building A” - A棟 (沐樂居)

GTJ-2019-1031-29.jpg

“Building A” was originally constructed as a dorm that would house two families under the same roof (雙拼日式宿舍), so the interior has several rooms and two large open spaces. It would have been a space for more senior teachers who brought their family with them to Taiwan.

The building is currently used as a revolving exhibition space that is likely to focus on the history of the local area, its people, language, cultures and cuisine.

2. “Building B” - B棟 (儒林所)

“Building B” is a smaller single family dorm (單棟日式宿舍) that was likely used by the principal of the school and his or her family. The home is complete with a couple of bedrooms, an open living room, kitchen and bathroom.

The building is currently used as a fun exhibition space for children to come and learn about Taiwanese history in a fun and interesting way.

3. “Building C” - C棟 (睦森館)

Building C” is the largest of the three buildings and was the space that was offered to teachers and staff with lower seniority. The building was constructed with bricks and as I mentioned above features a red tile roof, which is uncommon for Japanese-style buildings.  The living conditions would have been what you’d expect from a typical dorm but there would have been ample space for everyone living inside. 

The building is currently used as a multi-purpose space for exhibitions, meetings, public lectures, etc. It is also home to a small cafe where you can purchase some drinks and sit inside. The second floor patio is also open for guests to walk up to get a good look at the beautiful red tiles on the roof of the building as well as the exterior of the other two smaller buildings. 

During the week, the space can be a little quiet, but on the weekends there are always events taking place similar to weekend markets with hip vendors setting up mobile coffee shops with others offering a variety of foods. If you visit on the weekend, you should probably expect that there will be quite a few people and the opportunities for photos probably won’t be so good. 

Getting There

 

Address: #52 Bo-ai Road, Zhongli District, Taoyuan City (桃園市中壢區博愛路52號)

The Zhongli Forest Story House is located within the downtown core of the city and is easily walkable from the train station (中壢車站) or the inter-city bus terminal (中壢客運站).

If you’re in town, you can easily grab a Youbike and make your way to the dorms while also checking out many of the other historic destinations within the area.

Located directly across the street from Zhongli Elementary School (中壢國小) and a short walk from the Zhongli Police Dorms (壢景町), the Zhongping Story House (中平故事館) and several staple local restaurants, there is quite a bit to see and do in the space of a single city block, and a five minute walk from the train station. 

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday: 10:30-7:00 

Admission: Free of Charge

If you’re feeling hungry, take it from me, there are quite a few local restaurants nearby that should satisfy your tastebuds.

  • Tseng’s Steam-Fried Buns (曾記老牌水煎包) - A short walk away from the dorms, there is always a big line for these freshly cooked buns and for good reason - they’re amazing. 

Address: 桃園市中壢區康樂路61號

#61 Kangle Road.

  • Old Alley Hakka Noodles (老巷小館) - This Hakka noodle place serves up some cheap and amazing Hakka noodle dishes with the addition of succulent plates of duck. 

Address: 桃園市中壢區中正路243號 

#243 Zhongzheng Road.

  • Mama Liu’s Hakka Vegetable Buns (劉媽媽菜包店) - This take-away only store sells steaming hot sticky Hakka vegetable buns and are one of the things you absolutely have to eat if you’re in town. There are meat and vegetarian options, so make sure to let them know which type you want! 

Address: 桃園市中壢區中正路268號

#268 Zhongzheng Road.

  • Papa’s Secret Lover (阿爸的情人) - If you’re looking for some straight up amazing Hakka food, then look no further than this restaurant which has been open for half a century. 

Address: 桃園市中壢區中山路401號 

#401 Zhongshan Road.

  • Yong-Chuan Beef Noodles (永川牛肉麵) - If you’re a lover of beef noodles, then this restaurant should be high on your list. Its open 24 hours for your enjoyment and no matter what time of the day you visit, its always jam packed with people slurping up the spicy noodles. 

Address: 桃園市中壢區民權路61號

#61 Minquan Road.

  • The Peanut House (張豐盛商行) - While most locals visit this historic shop for their peanut fix, tourists have been coming from all over Taiwan for a taste of their peanut-flavoured ice cream which is surprisingly amazing. If you’re in town on a hot day, you’ll definitely want to visit. 

Address: 桃園市中壢區中正路349號

#349 Zhongzheng Road.

The restoration and reopening of the Zhongli Elementary School Teachers Dorms adds yet another location to the list of places for people to visit when they come to Taoyuan. These dorms, in conjunction with the nearby police dorms show off a bit of the city’s colonial history in an area that is rightfully very focused on and proud of its Hakka history and culture. 

A visit to the teachers dorms won’t take very long and it seems like there is always something interesting going on, so if you’re planning to visit the area, you should definitely add them to your list of places to visit. 


Japanese-Era Police Dorms (中壢警察局日式宿舍群)

When I left Canada over a decade ago I didn't really have any long-term plans apart from travelling a bit and seeing the world. I had just graduated from university and felt like the monotony of starting a career fresh out of school wasn't as appealing as experiencing new cultures, languages and people, yet I never would have expected that I'd be sitting in a coffeeshop in Taiwan over ten years later writing this blog.

I have called Zhongli (中壢) home since my arrival and when I think back to when I first arrived, I remember the excitement I felt about the new city I lived in. I was curious about my surroundings and I spent a lot of time at first exploring and familiarizing myself with not only the roads but the history, culture and cuisine of the area.  

The problem with that however is that after a few years I became too comfortable living here and basically stopped exploring as I had mistakenly assumed that I'd seen everything.

A few months ago, my friend and fellow blogger Alexander Synaptic moved into town for a short time and really opened up my eyes to the fact that I've been missing a lot of cool stuff that has sat there hidden from me in plain sight for all these years. Having him around and telling me stories about places that I feel I really should have known about forced me to reevaluate the way I look at the area I live in and Taiwan as a whole!

My post today is from a location of historical importance which sits (somewhat) hidden within the heart of downtown Zhongli and while many people may not even know it exists, big things are about to happen and these amazing pieces of local history which have been left to decay are about to receive a make-over giving them the honour and recognition that they deserve.  

I feel quite lucky however that before any of these changes took place that I took the initiative to figure out what these beautiful little buildings were that were hidden from the general public for the past few decades. 

Sakura House (櫻花樹屋)

You might think police dormitories don't really sound all that interesting or important historically, but I hope I can convince you otherwise. These dorms, which hide in plain site are over a century old and are a reminder the Japanese colonial period -  a very different era in Taiwanese history.

A lot can be said about the crimes committed by the Japanese Empire leading up to the Second World War. The bitter memory of that era is still felt today throughout Asia and a day doesn't go by that Japan isn't reminded of the horrific atrocities that were committed during that period. 

Taiwan's experience under Japanese colonial rule is considered to be a bit tamer than that of neighbouring countries as the regime sought to transform the island into a "model colony" and develop the islands infrastructure and economy as well as provide a modern education to the people living here.

As Taiwan was Japan's first colony, the Japanese Empire wanted to show the world that being under Japanese control wasn't such a terrible thing and that the people of Taiwan would only benefit from becoming a part of the empire. Unfortunately history has shown that things didn't exactly turn out that way for some of Japan's other colonies.

The colonial period (1895-1945) which lasted for a half century had its fair share of resistance from the local people and the colonial power was guilty of a great many atrocities, however the general feeling today is that people of this country share a strong bond with the Japanese and enjoy a friendship that despite a troubled history is based off of mutual understanding and respect for each other. 

When Japan surrendered to the allies at the end of the war, control of Taiwan was handed over to Chiang Kai Shek and his Republic of China. The Sino-Japanese War which ravaged China for so many years before caused a lot of resentment for the Japanese among the Chinese population and leaders of the government in China had a hard time understanding why the people of Taiwan looked upon their period of Japanese control with so little disdain. 

The government decided that it would force Chinese culture upon the people of Taiwan which meant that traces of Japanese culture would have to be destroyed. These policies became a problem however when the KMT and over two million refugees were forced to escape to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War and were faced with a major housing shortage. 

It thus became a question of whether the destruction of 'Japanese culture' was more important than providing places for people to stay. 

Japanese class anyone?

While there are remnants of the colonial period visible throughout Taiwan today, most structures that were dedicated to Japanese culture (temples, shrines, etc.) were torn down and are few and far between. When the housing situation eventually settled down and Taiwan was in the midst of its economic miracle, a lot of the homes that were occupied by the refugees were abandoned and thus left to decay on their own. 

The buildings I want to talk about today suffered much of the same fate - They are former police dormitories here in Zhongli. These dormitories are somewhat hidden from sight but are a wonderful look back to the Japanese colonial period. There are two sections of dormitories, one section is a group of three wooden Japanese-style houses while other (which is behind the current police station) seem more like a former residential area with a network of military village-style (眷村) houses which were built much later.

Both sections are not in very good shape at the moment, but there are plans for renovations and renewal of the buildings which the city government will eventually open as a park to the public as part of the city's beautification plans. The reason why I'm happy I could see the houses in their current state is that they won't be in their original form for very long so I'm happy to be able to share a little piece of the history of this town before they get updated.

Section 1: Japanese-Style Dorms (日式宿舍)

Guava House (芭樂樹屋)

The three Japanese style houses are in a relatively small area across the street from the police station. They are currently quite run down but the Taoyuan City government has plans to make a culture park out of them. It seems that construcution work will start in the near future as the park is a part of Zhongli City's beautification and urban renewal project which coincides with the construction of the MRT subway system that will connect Taoyuan with Taipei.

UPDATE

The dorms have since been completely restored and are now open to the public.

Link: Zhongli Police Dorms (壢景町)  

Historical information on the houses is a bit scarce, but from what I could find, it looks like they were constructed in 1901 which was shortly after the beginning of the Japanese colonial era.

These three houses were likely inhabited by higher ranking officers in the police force at the time and each of the houses was named after a tree which was planted beside it. The house closest to the road is referred to as the Cherry Blossom House (櫻花樹屋) while the others are named the Longan House (龍眼樹屋) and the Guava House (芭樂樹屋). 

The Cherry Blossom house has become a popular place for photographers in recent years when the cherry blossoms are in bloom because they can get a shot of a Japanese-style house with cherry blossoms in the foreground.

The other two houses however seem to have been forgotten by the general public and the yard in front of one of the houses has become a parking lot for the police who work at the nearby precinct. 

There are fences which block people from visiting the Cherry Blossom and Longyan House (which are locked up tight) but I was lucky to get inside one of the houses to see what the interior looked like. Even though it isn't currently in very good shape, I can imagine that it would have been a beautiful place to stay back in the day. 


Section 2: Residential Community

The residential community is situated behind the current police station and seems to be a bit newer than the houses in section one. There isn't much information available about these houses online but it seems that some of the buildings were once used as different office buildings for the police force. When the KMT took control of Taiwan more houses were built up around some of the Japanese-style homes which allowed for members of the police force to live close to where they worked. 

This area unfortunately seems like it won't be preserved as part of the beautification plans and there are notices on the doors of all the houses to vacate the area. Walking around the small community is interesting though because it seems a lot like a typical military community that you'd find in other places around Taiwan.

The interesting thing to note about these buildings is that they survived what has become known as the "Zhongli Incident" (中壢事件) which was one of the first large scale democracy protests during the martial law period.

During the Zhongli Incident, the government took a heavy-handed approach to the protestors which resulted in a push back and the burning down of the original Japanese-built Zhongli police precinct.

The incident which happened in 1977 would be one of the precursors to the Taiwan Independence Movement and one of the first steps towards the end of the martial law period and the normalization of Taiwan's multi-party democratic system. 

I can't tell you with any confidence how much longer any of these houses will be around in their current state. If you are an urban explorer or interested in Taiwanese history you may want to check them out as soon as possible. The Taoyuan City government seems to have made some excellent plans for the renovation of this area into a culture park and from what I saw while doing research on the houses, the eventual park that will be built should be a very popular place to visit. 

I'm happy though that I took the time to go and check them out because if I had of waited any longer I might have missed out on them completely - I do hope though that once the renovations are complete that I can visit again and compare the shots I have from this blog post to the updated versions! 


The "Wilds" of Zhongli

A few months ago my friend Alexander Synaptic, the wandering urban explorer moved to what some "professional" photographers in Taipei refer to as "the wilds of Zhongli", the city I've called home for the past decade. While living here only for a few months Alexander explored on his own and ending up taking me places and teaching me about things that I had somehow overlooked or hadn't noticed during my decade of living here.

The city has a bad reputation among expat residents of Taipei who like their Taiwanese counterparts have a tendency of speaking about other areas of the country with their special "天龍國-mentality". Zhongli has been referred to in any number of pejorative ways over the years but the most popular is calling it the "armpit" of Taiwan. This reputation stems a bit from the way people in Taipei look down on the other cities of the country and from the fact that Zhongli has always been an industrial satellite city of Taipei known for its lack of urban planning and the dullness of life here.

It was always a stereotype that irritated me, but my days of defending the city seem soon to be over and so will the inane comments of a few people who rarely leave the safety of their MRT!

Fast forward a decade and it's easy to see that some pretty awesome urban development work has been undertaken by the county government and an extremely successful long-term beautification plan has had a pretty great effect on improving the lives of the people living here.

Taoyuan county has become much more prosperous over the years and a lot of effort has been spent on the "Taoyuan Metropolis" project making the newly amalgamated supercity a green one that is attractive to residents of Taipei who want to live close to the city, but avoid the sky-rocketing price of real-estate there. 

As things started to improve around here I slowly forgot about the old stuff, the stuff that made Zhongli what it was for so long and helped to earn its reputation among the Taipei elite. Having Alexander live here reminded me a bit of the days of when I first arrived and was more of an explorer. Things that I had become accustomed to became normal and unattractive suddenly became interesting again and I have to thank him for that! 

A few weeks ago Alexander happened to be taking a train back up to Taipei from the south of the country and decided to stop into Zhongli for some of his favourite beef noodles (Zhongli is the birthplace of the dish), a beer and a chat before heading back on the last train to Taipei. Just after getting off the train and meeting up he looked at me and said: Hey wanna see something cool?

Alexander's kind of "cool" is much different than most and it quickly found us walking on the rooftop of the Caishen Building (財神大樓), one of the biggest eyesores in the city and is what will probably (unfortunately) become your first impression of the city if you travel by train. Residents of the city have been waving their fists in its general direction for years as it is one of the reminders of what the downtown core of the city used to be like. 

I never would have imagined that the ugliest building in the city happened to overlook the Zhongli Train Station (中壢車站) and the rotary in front of it. The train station is basically the center of town and is part of a transportation hub that will soon include the High Speed Rail, Airport Link and Taoyuan MRT as well as having a large bus terminal pretty much next door. 

The photos I'm posting today are all long exposure shots of that area and I have to thank Alexander for showing me this great view in the first place!

I've been pretty sarcastic in my wording throughout this post - but after a decade of living here and calling this city home, I feel like I've earned the right to be sarcastic, especially from the never ending jeers I receive from people who don't really know much about the area.

The local government has done a great job in improving the city and coming from someone who studied development in university, I hope that they continue along this path making this area a much greener and more beautiful place to live!