Taiwan Monopoly Bureau Building – Taipei

Continuing a week of various historic buildings in Taipei – the Taiwan Monopoly Bureau Building.

The Japanese established the Monopoly Bureau (booze and fags basically now) in Taipei back in 1901 and built this building to house the bureaucracy in 1913. The central tower you can see in the second photo was added in 1922 making it one of the tallest buildings in Taipei at the time. Though now the liquor and tobacco people the Monopoly originally covered opium, salt, weights and measures and matches.