Rong Shing Bowling Center

Rong Shing Bowling Center (榮星保齡球館), Taiwan’s first bowling public alley, opened on April 29th, 1964, on Nanjing West Road in Zhongshan. It was founded by Koo Wei-fu (辜偉甫) of the Lukang Koo family, one of Taiwan’s five great families, and Taiwan Provincial Governor Huang Jie (黃杰) cut the ribbon at the two-storey, sixteen-lane venue, billed as “Free China’s newest sports and social venue”. Introduced to the island by the US military, bowling took off after Rong Shing opened, soon followed by the larger Yuanshan Bowling Alley in 1966. Demolished in the wake of the oil crisis in the 1970s, the site was redeveloped as Today Department Store and, through later changes of hands, is now occupied by Eslite Spectrum Nanxi (誠品生活南西).