Tamsui Post and Telegraph Office

Tamsui Post and Telegraph Office traces its origins to the late Qing postal station (滬尾旁站) opened under Governor Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳), on the site of the earlier Qing maritime customs office. A telegraph branch was added here when Taiwan’s first submarine telegraph cable reached Tamsui from Fuzhou in 1888. The Japanese colonial administration continued the combined post and telegraph operation, later routing lines to Naha and Nagasaki, making Tamsui a vital telecommunications hub. The landmark second-generation building, a two-storey brick-and-timber structure in half-timbered Tudor Revival style completed in 1917, became a favoured subject of local photographers and painters. Postal and telecommunications work carried on together here after the war; the 1917 building was demolished around 1985 and replaced by the black-clad Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) tower now on the site.