台中全安堂

Quan’an Hall

January 13th, 2017

Quán’ān Hall (全安堂) is a century-old building on Taiwan Boulevard (臺灣大道) not far from the old train station in Taichung. Built in 1909 with red brick, reinforced concrete, and a Neo-Baroque style commonly attributed to Japanese architect Tatsuno Kingo (辰野金吾), it was a pharmacy for many decades, and more recently a bakery. A few years ago it was rebranded as the Taiwan Sun Cake Museum (台灣太陽餅博物館), which now operates a gift store on the ground floor and, beneath the exposed wooden beams of the restored rooftop on the second level, a café, event space, and interactive museum.

In front of the Taiwan Sun Cake Museum in Taichung.

I captured this photo on New Year’s Day before embarking on a history walk conducted by the author of Writing Taichung (寫作中區). At the end of the tour we returned here for a free sun cake, Taichung’s iconic treat, and some conversation with the manager or maybe owner of the building, some of which I even understood. He argued passionately for preserving Taichung’s cultural heritage and expressed appreciation for those who take an active interest in the city’s history.

Naturally there are tons of Taiwanese blogs with more information about this place, seeing as how it is, along with Miyahara (宮原眼科), one of the downtown core’s top tourist attractions. For a sampling try here, here, here, and here.