Tuesday morning I took a stroll down to the railway station, which is in the heart of town. I was somewhat surprised at how European the architecture was. It was a foggy morning, but I'm sure the building would have been as grey in good sun light as it's covered with soot, as everything is in this area.
Inside was no surprise too, a busy commuter station, as busy as the ones in Manchester.
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You will find many European style buildings in bigger/major Taiwan cities, most notably in Taipei and its satellite cities (such as Hsin Chu).
Both this Central Train Station in Hsin Chu and the (more famously) Presidential Building in Taipei were built by the Japanese during the Japanese Occupation Period (1895 to 1945) and both were built in the Baroque style. (For some reason, the Japanese were really into Baroque style during this period.)
I think the Presidential Building was built around the turn of the century and the Hsin Chu Train Station a bit later, probably after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown (at 1911).
Sidebar - A brief history of Taiwan:
There are also bits and pieces of very old (by American standard) Dutch and Spanish structures left in Taiwan, as it was colonized by the Dutch and the Spaniards in the 1600’s.
After the Dutch/Spanish rules, Taiwan was taken in by the Mainland Chinese, first the Ming and then the Qing Dynasty.
Toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, it lost many wars against the rest of the world and Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895 after the Qing lost a war to Japan.
The Chinese (Republic of China) regained control of Taiwan after the Japanese surrendered to USA and China (and the rest of the Allies) in 1945.
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