Yuanshan Complex

Date CapturedDecember 29th, 2024 at 04:46 UTCCameraDC-S5M2LensLUMIX S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6Apertureƒ / 8Shutter Speed1/400 secFocal Length34.0 mmISO100Exposure Value14.6 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

A four-storey building near Yuanshan, completed around 1968 in a style heavily influenced by the Chinese renaissance movement of the time. Part of a wider redevelopment of the area, it combined a traditional market on its lower floors with offices for civil defense and the municipal zoo, then next door. The civil defense command also operated a radio station, the predecessor of today’s Radio Taipei (臺北廣播電臺), which moved in around 1971 and remains the building’s best-known occupant. Its operations were tightly controlled during the authoritarian era, with programmes pre-screened and monitored by the Garrison Command, vetted announcers, and emergency buttons wired to the nearby military police, who on one occasion swarmed the studio within a minute after an announcer pressed one by accident. The station was renamed for municipal affairs in 1977 and took its present name in 1991, and still broadcasts today under the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism.