National Taiwan Museum Railway Department Park — Attraction in Taipei

An European half-timbered structure constructed by Moriyama Matsunosuke (森山松之助) under the tutelage of Tatsuno Kingo (辰野金吾), the Railway Department Administration Headquarters reflects the Queen Anne Revival architectural style from the late 19th and early 20th century to symbolise Formosa’s industrialisation in terms of provincial infrastructure.

Taipei citadel was founded in 1884 and the subsequent year in 1885, the province of Taiwan. Commenced in 1887 under the Governor-General Liu Ming-chuan following the establishment of Taiwan Railway Business Bureau, the first public railway construction was pioneered by British and German engineers Matheson and Becker, from which the naming conventions of trains originated. The Wartime Command Centre/Air Raid Shelter was constructed in 1943 within the premises.

According to the World City Risk Index 2015-2025 (a Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies and Lloyd's joint research), Taipei and Tokyo (Tier 1), followed by Seoul (Tier 2) exhibit the highest risk exposure to natural catastrophes and manmade risks (e.g. financial shocks, human error and conflicts) in respect of nominal GDP@Risk. Interstate war is ranked among the top five threats to the aforementioned major capital economies in East Asia where capitalism prospered: Taipei (TPE-10.05%), Tokyo (TKY-16.16%) and Seoul (SEL-24.12%) (2015: 12); the top five economic losses (TPE) observed are as follows: wind storm, earthquake, market crash, interstate war and flooding (2015: 12).

Pursuant to Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11), building inclusive, safe, resilient (韌性/韧性) and sustainable (永續/可持续) cities and human settlements is aspired. 31 October was designated World Cities Day by the United Nations. UN-Habitat proclaimed the New Urban Agenda under the initiative Urban October in 2014.

Sources: Cities: SDG 11. n.d. UN. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/

Convention on the prohibition of military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques. 1976. UNODA. https://disarmament.unoda.org/enmod/

Global Risk Report 2023. 2023. WEF. https://www.weforum.org/publica.../global-risks-report-2023/

Graham, S. & Riebeek, H. 2006. Hurricanes: the greatest storms on earth. NASA Earth Observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Hurricanes

Lin, B et al. 2022. Competition in the grey zone. RAND. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA594-1.html

Norman Shaw North. n.d. UK Parliament. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/northern-estate/normanshaw-parliament-st1/

Siebens, J. & Lucas, R. 2022. Military operations other than war and China's foreign policy. Stimson Centre. https://www.stimson.org/.../military-operations-other.../

Tatsuno Kingo. n.d. Portraits of modern Japanese historical figures. https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/289/

UNIS. 2024. The Secretary-General: message for World Habitat Day. United Nations Vienna. https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2024/unissgsm1441.html

World City Day. n.d. UN. https://www.un.org/en/observances/cities-day

World City Risk 2015-2025. 2015. Cambridge Centre for Risk...

It's not a bad place to visit on a random occasion.

Yet, there are some issues with the exhibition that could be improved, for example, it seems uneasy to orient oneself around the museum, somehow the exhibition starts on the right side yet you go from one room to another and then you have to switch sides to continue, or the whole section is divided by another (c1-1, c1-2, D, c2). Even though there are posters telling you which room is what - the system itself is confusing.

Another example is the bilingual approach to the exhibition, some parts are only in Chinese and it becomes hard to follow the timeline of events.

Some items are misrepresented and not explained, like the "double-track block instrument" - nowhere around it it explains what the hell is a "double-track block instrument" and we had to Google it to figure out.

In the age of Tiktok and Instagram you'd be thinking how to make museums (with such a boring topic like trains) appealing to the young generation. Maybe making it more interactive could make it even better. There isn't even a model train you can ride in a train museum, come on! Showmanship is important not just for education but for the profits.

Nonetheless, the staff is very kind and helpful, I wish more museums' staff was like the people working here: kind, attentive, bilingual and supportive. I personally have seen a staff member giving a tour to a mother with a naughty kid who would just do whatever he felt like with mother being an absolute stranger and that man was patient like his life depended on it. Just wow!

Thanks for the experience!

Would I recommend it to friends? Not so sure, maybe to those who find the topic appealing. But it's a good way to spend 1,5 hour if you don't know...

A really cool museum showcasing the history of Taiwan Railways.

Each exhibit showcases various aspects of railway operations - from the rolling stock, to train signals, to train scheduling and tickets, it gives a deep insight as to how railways used to operate and how they operate today.

There are also interactive exhibits like the model railway, replica of an old train, and a kiosk where you can listen to train announcements.

Overall it's an amazing place to visit especially if you're interested in trains, and even those without particular interest will find this museum interesting.

Just be careful not to go through the exit inside the administration building. We didn't know it was the exit and walked out. Fortunately the staff at the entrance let us in after we explained that we didn't...