Beitou Hot Spring Museum

(review and supplementary reading for Shin Min students)

The museum was originally established in 1913 as a public bathhouse. It was renovated in 1997 and reopened to the public in 1998. It is a registered 3^rd grade historical site. This year is this magnificent building’s 100^th anniversary.

Legend says that Beitou once was home to a witch. Why? Because the name ‘Beitou’ comes from the word ‘witch’ in Ketagalan, a language of one of Taiwan’s aboriginal tribes, as called the Ketagalan.

The Beitou Hot Spring Museum combines two styles of architecture: Japanese and Western.  Looking at the front of the building, the steep, tiled roof and wooden walls show the building’s Japanese influence.  The three chimneys show the museum’s Western influence.

As visitors, we enter the Hot Spring on the second floor.  The big room in the middle of the second floor in front of us is covered by tatami mats.  In the past, 

people could lie down or rest on the tatami mats after a hot spring bath.

In 1697, a Chinese officer named Yu Yong-he was dispatched to Taiwan to get sulfur for China.

In 1894, a German merchant named Orie Ouely found hot springs in Beitou, but did not try to develop them.

The next year, a Japanese named Hirata Gengo came to Beitou and established Tengu-an, Taiwan’s first hot spring hotel.

Two famous men have visited Beitou. First, Dr. Sun Yet-sen visited in 1913, and then in 1923 Japan’s crown prince, Hirohito, came to Beitou.

Beitou produces four important products: Qi-li-an stone, sulfur, a kind of grass called ‘common rush’, and petuntse, a raw material used in Chinese porcelain.

Express delivery by motorcycle is one of Beitou’s special cultural characteristics.

On the second floor, in the southern corner, the observation deck gives a nice view of nearby scenery.

The multimedia room showcases Beitou’s unique history and culture.  Sometimes called Taiwan’s Hollywood, many Taiwanese moviemakers used to film in Beitou.

The museum bathhouse on the first floor has two sections: a large Roman-style pool for men and a smaller pool for women and children.  Nearby, there is also a luxury bathroom for important visitors.

A Japanese man named Yohachiro Okamoto first discovered Hokutolite nearby Geothermal Valley in Beitou Creek.  Hokutolite is a rare kind of stone that contains the radioactive element ‘radium.’  It is said that Hokutolite has many health benefits.

The large pool is nine meters long and six meters wide.  At the shallow end, it is 40 cm. deep for teenagers and 130 cm. for adults at the deep end.

Traditionally, only men were allowed to take a hot spring bath.  They bathed by standing in the pool.  Why did they bathe standing?  The first reason was safety; if a person fainted in the pool standing up, others would notice right away and help him.  The second reason was health.  Because of the hot water temperatures, people shouldn’t stay in the water more than 20 minutes at a time; by making people stand, they would not stay in the water too long.

Hallways with Roman-style arches surround the large pool on three sides.  In addition, on the west side of the pool, you can see stained-glass windows featuring swans.

When the sun shines through these windows, the swans’ shadows reflect onto the pool, so it looks like the swans swim together with the bathers.

The holes in the wall allow museum workers to put chemicals into the wall; these chemicals keep the steel inside the walls from rusting and also keep moisture from going up into the wooden walls.