Hsinchu Monopoly Bureau

Designed by Umezawa Sutejirō (梅澤捨次郎) and constructed in 1934 as an office for the monopoly bureau of the Japanese colonial era, with operations beginning in 1936, when the Hsinchu office was upgraded to a full branch occupied mainly with the camphor trade. The three-storey building is plain and horizontal in the modernist manner, stepping up toward an entrance at the street corner. In the post-war era it continued to serve the same function, with a remit reduced to tobacco and alcohol, and it is still in use as of 2024.