About this place
The Beitou Hot Spring Museum was formerly known as the "Beitou Public Baths". It was planned under the order of Imura Daiyoshi, the director of Taipei during the Japanese colonial period, and supervised by Moriyama Matsunosuke, the architect of the Governor's Office. It was completed on June 17, 1913 (the second year of Taisho). It is a two-story building with a Japanese and Western eclectic style. It was also the largest hot spring public bath in East Asia at that time. The bath area on the first floor is made of brick, the rest area on the second floor is made of wood, and the entrance is on the second floor. The bathhouse was built using public health funds from the Taipei State Department at the time and modeled on the Izuyama Hot Spring Bathhouse in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The rest area on the second floor is equipped with a pavilion, a shoe-changing entrance, and a tatami hall where visitors can cool off after taking a bath. There is also a protruding platform "watchtower" next to the hall, where you can enjoy the scenery of Beitou's mountains and waters. In addition, meals and drinks are sold indoors, and sometimes artistic performances are even arranged. In 1923 (the 12th year of Taisho), the Japanese Crown Prince Hirohito came to Taiwan for inspection. He also visited Beitouβs public baths and inspected Beitou stones in the stream. For this reason, the bathhouse also built an "Imperial Rest Room" on the second floor for them to rest, which is located in the audio-visual room of the current Wenzhou Museum.