BEITOU HOT SPRINGS MUSEUM

It was the Japanese who imported the bathing culture to Taiwan, because even though the island had an incredibly rich heritage of hot springs, the inhabitants had not developed this activity. They preferred to settle under one of the five waterfalls in the village to relax until the Japanese occupier, judging this practice very unhygienic, offered the town public baths. Built in 1913 in a Victorian style, this building surrounded by a no less beautiful garden faces the river Beitou. The largest spa in Asia at the time, it copied the architecture of the baths on Mount Izu in Japan. After a few decades of activity, this place was forgotten by all until a schoolmaster and his pupils rediscovered it. In 1998, the baths of Beitou, restored identically, reopened their doors but this time as a museum. Inside, a 15 by 6 meter pool, a large room equipped with a tatami, recreate the atmosphere of the time. The stained glass windows, which give off magical colours when bathed in sunlight, and the small cinema, which reminds us that Beitou was a very popular film location, to the point of being nicknamed the "Hollywood of Taiwanese cinema". You should also know that Hiro Hito, then Crown Prince and sojourning in Taiwan, came to take advantage of the springs of Beitou, and a pavilion was built especially for him. We don't visit him, but we can go past him.