Taichung Winery

Established in 1914 as a private distillery by the Japanese businessman Akashi Hatsutarō (赤司初太郎), this industrial complex was taken over by the Monopoly Bureau when liquor production came under state control in 1922, and by 1928 it was the largest winery in Taiwan. The Shinto shrine at the center of the grounds was destroyed after the post-war handover, and from 1947 the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Monopoly Bureau (台灣省菸酒公賣局) continued producing rice wine, Shaoxing, and other spirits here until 1998. After the factory was relocated to a more modern facility in Taichung Industrial Park, sixteen buildings were registered as historic buildings in 2002, among them a former tobacco warehouse still marked by bullet holes from American strafing runs during World War 2. Now operating as Taichung Cultural Heritage Park (文化部文化資產園區), the site also houses the offices of the Bureau of Cultural Heritage (文化資產局).