Tri-mountain National Scenic Area

“Nanzhuang Dongcun Dormitory” was built in the 10th year of the Shōwa era (1935) and was renovated in the 15th year of the Shōwa era (1940). Originally, it was named “Nanzhuang Camphor Production Storage Office”. The original site layout included “storage warehouse”, “chief’s office”, and “inspector’s dormitory”.

Responding to the voice of local conservation in 2007, Miaoli County Government carried out an evaluation and ed the dormitory is the annex of the forestry industry and thus a representative case among the historical buildings of industries in Taiwan. Besides, it is an important architecture from Japanese occupation period in Miaoli County. The conservation of the current building is in good condition, its surrounding area is beautiful, and it has the value of conservation and reutilization. Miaoli County Government announced that the site is a historical building on June 14th in the same year.

The historical building currently only has the chief’s dormitory, inspector’s dormitory, bathroom, and toilet remained. It only has one story with three buildings attached to each other. The feature of the building is a complex with both for office and home. It is one of the rare buildings in Taiwan that contains the small residential public bath. The layout of the building includes an L-shaped office with the chief’s dormitory in a single complex building, a U-shaped independent inspector’s dormitory, and an independent building used for public bathroom and toilet for dormitory. The appearance of the ridge and the top of the roof still preserves the Japanese traditional devil head (devil mask) ornamentation design, its roof truss is in Japanese style, its outer wall uses layering-free weatherboard as well as contains brick-footing foundation and raised floor. It has a high value of cultural asset conservation.

To conserve the memory of local history, the Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area Headquarters of Tourism Administration, Ministry of Transportation and Communications links and expands travelling routes in Nanzhuang and completed the appropriation of the historical building in 2018 to actively implement building restoration and reutilization. We continue operating it in the mode of “cultural tourism” and linking it with the attractions near Nanzhuang Old Street as well as the diverse cycling routes in Shitoushan to enrich the travelling characteristics in the overall cultural tourism of Nanzhuang. We want to pass on and extend the historical meaning of the building through the ongoing visitation of people.