Japan ruled Taiwan for fifty years, from 1895 to 1945, and Tainan still wears that half century in its buildings. A department store with a rooftop shrine, a prefectural hall, an Art Deco police station, a courthouse, a martial arts hall, a railway station: many of them are restored and open to visitors as museums, shops and parks.
The old-town buildings sit close together around the civic core near Hayashi, so you can see several in a morning and duck into them during the midday heat. Hours, entry and the building facts below come from each venue's official site and Taiwan's national heritage database. Check the venue before you go: hours change.
In the old town
Hayashi Department Store (林百貨)
Opened in December 1932 and designed by Umezawa Sutejirō, Hayashi was southern Taiwan's first department store, and its heritage listing notes the first commercial elevator there. Restored, it reopened in 2013 and 2014, and today it's a beautiful shop for Taiwanese design and local goods, topped by a rooftop shrine.
- Built: 1932, department store
- Today: shop, with the rooftop shrine
- Hours: 11:00 to 21:00 daily
- Entry: free
National Museum of Taiwan Literature (the former Tainan Prefectural Hall)
One of the era's grandest public buildings, completed in 1916 to a design by Moriyama Matsunosuke as the seat of Tainan Prefecture. It's now a national monument, restored and reopened in 2003 as Taiwan's national literature museum.
- Built: 1916, prefectural government hall
- Today: National Museum of Taiwan Literature
- Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 18:00; closed Mondays
- Entry: free
Tainan Art Museum (the former Tainan Police Station)
An Art Deco police station completed in 1931, also designed by Umezawa Sutejirō, and restored and extended by architect Shigeru Ban with Joe Shih Architects into the city's art museum.
- Built: 1931, police station
- Today: Tainan Art Museum
- Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, Saturdays to 21:00; closed Mondays
- Entry: NT$80, concession NT$40, free for children under 7
Judicial Museum (the former Tainan District Court)
Another Moriyama Matsunosuke design, built from 1912 to 1914. The museum describes it as the only large Japanese-era district court building left in Taiwan. One of its towers was taken down in 1969; the rest is a national monument, open to visitors since 2016.
- Built: 1914, district court
- Today: Judicial Museum
- Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00; closed Mondays and major festivals
- Entry: free; roof catwalk tours at 10:00 and 15:00, 10 people each
Former Tainan Martial Arts Hall (原臺南武德殿)
Built in 1936 for martial arts training, and since 1953 the assembly hall of Zhongyi Elementary School. Because it's on a school campus, visiting is limited: the city's tourism site lists weekends only, 08:00 to 18:00. Check before you go.
Former Tainan Public Hall and Wu Garden
Finished in 1911 and renamed Tainan Public Hall in 1923, it's listed as the earliest modern building in Taiwan built for public gatherings. It stands beside the classical Wu Garden.
- Built: 1911, public hall
- Today: arts space and garden
- Hours: garden open all day; exhibits 10:00 to 17:00
- Entry: free
Tainan Station (臺南車站)
The two-storey station building dates from 1936, with a hotel and restaurant once upstairs, and the Ministry of Culture calls it the only two-storey Japanese-era station left in Taiwan. In October 2026 the railway moved into a new underground station. The old building still awaits restoration, and Exit 1 of the new station runs through it on Beimen Road.
Also nearby: the Blueprint Culture and Creative Park fills a former judicial staff village that included Japanese-style houses, rebuilt after the war. → West Central old town
In Anping
Anping Old Fort: the Japanese-era layer
The Dutch fort is the headline, but the Japanese era reshaped it. In 1897 part of the old fort was leveled for a brick platform with customs staff housing. In 1908 an iron lighthouse was moved onto the site, and in 1930 the hilltop building became an exhibition hall, today's history exhibition hall. One correction to a common story: the lookout tower's pointed roof and white walls date from 1975.
- Hours: 08:30 to 17:30 daily
- Entry: NT$70, half price NT$35
Former Anping Customs House
Built in 1926 on the Tainan Canal and now a city monument, it's been turned into a café.
- Hours: 10:00 to 17:30; closed Mondays
- Entry: free
Day trips beyond the city
Wushantou Reservoir and the Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park
Built from 1920 to 1930 to the design of engineer Hatta Yoichi, to irrigate farmland. Hatta lived in the engineers' houses here from 1921 to 1930. The houses were restored and opened as a memorial park in 2011, and the reservoir landscape is a registered cultural landscape. It's in Guantian, toward the hills, and the Dongshan coffee road runs down toward it. → Dongshan coffee
- Hours: memorial park 09:00 to 17:00; closed Wednesdays. Hatta's house closes at 16:30 and in rain
- Entry: scenic area ticket NT$100
The old Tainan waterworks (原臺南水道)
The city's Japanese-era waterworks, built from 1912 to 1922 in Shanshang, now a national monument and, since 2019, a museum set in gardens.
- Hours: 09:30 to 17:30, last entry 16:30; closed Wednesdays
- Entry: NT$100, half price NT$50; the purification pond area is free
Soulangh Cultural Park (蕭壠文化園區)
The Jiali sugar factory dates from 1906, the Meiji Sugar company's first modern factory in Taiwan. Its warehouses became an arts park in 2005. For another old sugar factory, see the Ten Drum Cultural Village. → Top attractions
- Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00
- Entry: free
The hot springs at Guanziling were also first developed in the Japanese era. → Guanziling day trip
Sources
Building histories from Taiwan's National Cultural Heritage Database and the Ministry of Culture. Hours and entry from each venue's official site: Hayashi, National Museum of Taiwan Literature, Tainan Art Museum, Judicial Museum, Tainan historic sites, the old waterworks, Soulangh and Travel Tainan. Checked October 2026.