Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-16
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
The Crown Prince Chalet in the Gold Museum in Jinguashi, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, is a 
Japanese-style mansion located in an old mining village with an atmosphere reminiscent of Japanese colonial era.
The mansion is tucked securely and almost secretively on one side of a trail leading up to an old mining site, where mining equipment and tunnels from the mining era are preserved for
tourists to see. The wooden mansion, which overlooks the mining village of Jinguashi, the surrounding mountains and the sea in the distance, is made of cypress, red sandalwood and cherry wood, and joined together with mortise and tenon joints, typical of Japanese structures from the period. The home has attracted many architecture scholars to visit and study.
The staff at the Gold Museum said there are mysteries surrounding the purpose and usage of the Crown Prince Chalet. According to local elders and research by scholars, the mansion was built in the 1920s during the Japanese Colonial era, the museum said, adding that the total area of the wooden mansion is about 369 pings with the main structure occupying 141.5 pings. A ping is the equivalent to 3.306 square meters. [FULL STORY]
