Taipei Post Office…Still Standing and Still Quite Impressive

Talking of Taipei’s North Gate (as I was yesterday) – a trip down to the North Gate does not take you into the most salubrious part of Taipei but is worth it for Futai Street, the gate and the excellent Taipei Post Office, an 1930 four-story building composed of two huge wings and one front lobbying opening. It’s a Japanese colonial era construction and abuts the European style Futai Street. The building was the  the old Chunghwa Post. It remains a post office in part (now Taiwan Post) but other parts of the building are occupied by National Chiao Tung University and Chunghwa Telecom. The structure is essentially a big V with a sizable courtyard space behind the street facades. In this sense the building is actually reminiscent of the old Municipal Council Offices in Shanghai on the corner of Hankow and Kiangse Roads (now Hankou and Jiangxi Roads) which follows a similar layout.