Welcome to Beitou Park!

We are going to give you an English Guiding Tour for this beautiful Park of Beitou with Hot-spots descriptions and lots of interesting stories about the history of hot springs.

You’ll have a chance to discover that this park is so important to all the residents in Beitou. Not only the Hot Spring Museum is located here, but also the Green Library and the fountains are very unique design for the benefits of all the residents who lived here, a most beautiful little town at northern part of Taipei. Now, please join me and all the team members in the group and we’ll give you a special English Guiding Tour of Beitou Hot Spring Park.

ETGBC Discover Beitou Park：

(1) Park Entrance

北投地名的由來

北投過去是凱達格蘭族部落居住的地方，漢人移居此地時，把原住民語“Pataauw”直接音譯成“北投”，原意是女巫的住所。

Beitou used to be where Ketagalan tribe resided. When the Hans immigrated here, they called the place“Beitou”, which was directly translated from the aboriginal word“Pataauw.”It originally means“a witch’s residence”. 

北投的溫泉和硫磺

北投的大屯火山群為北投帶來質優量豐的溫泉和硫磺。清朝康熙皇帝在一六九七年派了官員郁永河來此勘察並管理硫磺的開採和交易。

荷蘭人、西班牙人也先後來台從事硫磺的貿易。一八九五年，中日甲午戰爭，中國戰敗，把台灣割讓給日本。一八九六年大阪商人平田源吾來北投開了全台第一家溫泉旅館－天狗庵，並著書北投溫泉誌以頌揚並促銷北投的溫泉。從此，溫泉就成為北投最重要的產業。

The extinct volcanoes of the Tatuns around Beitou left behind a lot of good quality hot springs and sulfur. In 1697, the Emperor Kang-xi of Qing Dynasty sent an officer Yu Yong-he to Beitou to investigate and govern the trade of sulfur. Later, the Dutch and the Spanish also came to trade for sulfur. In 1895, China was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War, and Taiwan was ceded to Japan. In 1896, an Osaka businessman Hirata Gengo opened Taiwan’s first hot spring hotel－Tiangouan in Beitou. He also wrote a book“Retrospectives of Hot Springs in Beitou”to praise and promote Beitou’s hot springs. Since then, hot springs have become the most important industry of Beitou.

北投公園

北投公園建於一九一三年，是台灣第三古老的公園，內有參天古木、典雅噴泉、石拱橋、涼亭，一座公共圖書館和溫泉博物館，其中溫泉博物館和圖書館更是值得參觀，前者是有名的北投公共浴場改建而成，日本裕仁皇太子曾來此泡湯；而後者則是全台灣第一座也是唯一的一座綠建築圖書館。北投公園內植物相非常豐富，被譽為台灣植物的縮影，閒步其間，猶如置身綠色桃花源。到北投一遊，若不來北投公園就不算真正來過北投。

Completed in 1913, Beitou Park is the third oldest park in Taiwan. Giant old trees, graceful fountains, stone arch bridges, pavilions, a public library, a hot spring museum and a lot more can be seen. The museum and the library are especially worth visiting. The former used to be known as Beitou Public Bathhouse, where the Japanese prince Hirohito had bathed in 1923. The latter is the first and the only green building library in Taiwan. Abundant in vegetation, Beitou Park is praised as a miniature model of plants in Taiwan. When strolling in the park, you will find yourself wandering in a green wonderland. No trip to Beitou would be complete without paying a visit to Beitou Park.