After Taiwan’s return to Chinese rule, the Taihoku Sugar Refinery was included in an industrial zone in line with a mixed-use urban development policy dating back to the Japanese colonial period. The refinery was then used by Taiwan Sugar Corporation (Taisugar) for warehousing, with small-and-mid factories such as chemical engineering plants and food processors thriving on the idle sugar-making space. Following the cluster of printing houses formed in the 1950s around the present-day headquarters of China Times, which took over the Taisugar warehouses, the expanded rail transport services sent clothing wholesalers mushrooming in the 1970s and 1980s. Dali Street had been a production center in Taipei until the urban planning authorities shifted their focus to the City’s east end amid the changing industrial pattern. The once prosperous “Huei-xia-vei” neighborhood and industrial landscape at the rear of the refinery were marginalized due to a deteriorating quality of life, a high density of population and buildings, and the lack of public amenities. In a protest against a nursery project, the Dali Street residents were granted a park project to preserve Taiwan’s farthest north-lying sugar-making facility, the main structure of which is a warehouse featuring red-brick masonry, arched gates, trapezoidal columns and a large-span framework. On Sept. 23, 2003, it was proclaimed as the 106th city-designated historic site.
Sugar Refinery Cultural Park 糖廍文化園區
