About this place
The Ximen Red Building was completed in 1908. It was originally the first officially built public market in Taiwan, and it is also the oldest and most complete historical market building currently preserved. It was designed by Juro Kondo, a Japanese architect who worked in the Maintenance Department of the Taiwan Governor's Office and was good at Western architectural styles. The young and bold creativity used the "Bagua shape", which means gathering from all directions, as the entrance to the market, and the "Cross shape" as the main feature of the market. This is not only unprecedented, but also the first in the history of Eastern and Western architecture. Today, what everyone calls the Octagonal Tower and the Cross Tower, together with the north and south squares on both sides, are collectively known as the "Ximen Red Tower".