Tainan Travel

"According to historic records and relevant literature, salt fields have existed in Yancheng as early as 1665 during the Kingdom of Tungning. The field was known as Seguchi Salt Field and it was most likely the first of its kind in Taiwan. The former Monopoly Bureau Branch of Taiwan Governor’s Office, which has become a municipal heritage site today, used to be known as the “Yancheng Office”. The architecture itself an office building for salt trade during the Japanese colonial period and it is the only Japanese construction that has been relocated among all other Japanese architectures built during that period.  In 2003, Tainan City Government designated the building as a municipal heritage site. After its restoration in 2017, the former textile factory was successfully overhauled to become the premise of “Man Man Nong Café”  - an exquisite coffee shop commissioned with the task of blending the local features and stories of Yancheng and hopefully become a new tourist attraction in South District of Tainan.  

 The architecture once belonged to the bureaucratic system of the Monopoly Bureau Branch of Taiwan Governor’s Office and was responsible for salt trade. When it was rebuilt in 1919, the former Wushulin Branch Hongmaogang Office situated in Hongmaogang of Kaohisung was relocated to Yancheng of Tainan and became the Tainan Branch Office. And as such, the hall way features many decorative elements in Japanese architecture such as hanging fish, pagoda, jewels and corbels while the pediments were also constructed in special designs. The corridor columns and bracing feature contours defined with simple wooden chamfers and contribute to the hybrid of Western and Japanese styling of interior decoration and architectural design. Among all the Japanese buildings that have been preserved in Tainan, this is the only architecture that has been relocated. The expansion in the posterior side of the building was a new construction completed at the site, in the style of a traditional Japanese residence."