Huashan Park celebrates facility centenary

2014-10-02

Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei City recently celebrated the centenary of its buildings by launching a special exhibition and hosting this year’s International Forum and Youth Workshop for Asian Route of Industrial Heritage.

Local experts were joined by those from Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Spain and mainland China at the forum to share experience in revitalizing retired industrial sites. Attendees pledged to improve cooperation in repurposing and preserving industrial heritage networks in Asia.

“The forum seeks to accelerate revitalization of the nation’s industrial heritage and serves as a milestone in Taiwan’s international cooperation,” said Shy Gwo-long, director-general of Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage.

According to the MOC, Huashan is a shining example of how former industrial sites can be transformed into thriving urban arts spaces. The park assumed its present form in 2007 when Taiwan Cultural-Creative Development Co. Ltd. took over management of the complex.

Some of the facilities date back to 1914 during Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945), when a private sake distillery was established on the spot. The winery was taken over by the Japanese government in 1922 after wine-making became a national monopoly, producing Chinese rice and red wines.

The distillery switched production to fruit wine after World War II, when control switched to state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau. The buildings were left empty once the plant relocated to New Taipei City’s Linkou District in 1987.

On show at the centennial exhibition are historic documents, photos, bottles and labels, tracing the development of drinks production over the past 100 years. To commemorate the event, Huashan invited Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. to produce a special vintage of Hojo, the sake originally produced onsite.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=222263&CtNode=413)