Qingguo Hezuo Building

A large mixed-use building near Taichung Station, best remembered as the home of Dada Department Store (大大百貨), one of the early downtown department stores in central Taichung. On the morning of November 5, 1984, a fire broke out in a basement-level kitchen and rapidly filled the upper floors with smoke. Hundreds of people were trapped, with residents fleeing to the rooftop where many were rescued by helicopter. Three people perished in the deadly blaze, one of several to afflict central Taichung in the 1980s and 1990s. The department store was eventually refurbished but it never regained its former prosperity and the site was later converted into a commercial arcade and electronics store.