Little Guanyinshan Reservoir:

The old pump house that is home to the Taipei Museum of Drinking Water is a magnificent century-old Neoclassical-style structure built in 1908. Planned by British engineer William K. Burton, “the father of Taiwan’s modern water supply system,” it was originally the heart of Taipei’s waterworks. Designed by Japanese architect Moriyama Matsunosuke, the building features a lovely curved gallery lined with Ionic columns.

The European-style Taipei Museum of Drinking Water building was designated a municipal historic site in 2002. 

Giant water pumps inside the Taipei Museum of Drinking Water.

The cradle of Taipei’s modern water system

The facility’s giant water pumps still stand on the site, a symbol of industrial civilization. During the period of Japanese rule, water drawn from the Xindian River was purified here, and pumped up into a reservoir partway up Mt. Guanyin (a nearby hill, also called “Little Mt. Guanyin” in deference to its larger namesake in New Taipei’s Bali District). From there, gravity ­carried it back downhill to old downtown Taipei (the area within the former city walls), and to Dadaocheng and Bangka (Monga). The waterworks was retired in 1977 and designated a municipal heritage site in 2002. 

Visitors who climb the footpath eventually reach a grassy field covering the underground reservoir for purified water. Of the 60 iron ventilation shafts that once rose up through the reservoir’s roof to dot the field, only four remain. Various other installations including a purification chamber and pipework are connected to the reservoir.

At 55 meters long, 30 meters wide and five meters deep, the reservoir has been compared to Tokyo’s Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel and Istanbul’s Basilica Cistern. 

Each pump has a control panel mounted on insulating stone sheets that were imported from Italy.

As magical as a movie setting 

The bright red entrance of the reservoir is thought to have first been painted red after World War II. 

Though the reservoir has been made more visitor friendly, the renovations have been guided by a “minimum interference” principle intended to maintain the roughhewn look of the previously long-abandoned space. The cracking and peeling of the original cement render, caused by the removal of water pressure after decades of use, highlight the passage of time. 

Following minimally invasive renovations, the long-unused reservoir has become a hydrological attraction. 

The underground reservoir is only accessible via prebooked group tours.

（左圖）Our guide: Lin Yu-chen, a section chief in the Taipei Water Department’s Subsidiary Business Development Division.

（中圖）Ventilation chimneys ensured that the air in the underground reservoir remained fresh. Only four of the original 60 remain.

（右圖）A bust in the museum memorializes William K. Burton, “the father of Taiwan’s modern water supply system.”

Lin Yu-chen, a section chief in the Taipei Water Department’s Subsidiary Business Development Division, notes the inverted trapezoid design of the reservoir, which helped it better withstand the tremendous water pressure. Five guide walls extend from opposite sides into each half of the body of the reservoir to direct the water’s flow, with rows of supports rising from these walls in three tiers to better distribute the weight of the roof. 

The reservoir’s air of mystery makes it feel like a video-game setting. During the Covid pandemic, it was even used by the Shiatzy Chen label to host a fashion show. 

Various installations such as ventilation chimneys, a purification chamber and pipework are connected to the reservoir, forming a complete system.

In the soft lighting, the space looks like something out of a video game. “Who could have known that the passage of a century would transform this into a tourist destination?” muses Lin. The space is so unique that the Shiatzy Chen fashion label even arranged to use it for a fashion show! 

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Sakurai Yasukichi… Mugi District, Gifu Prefecture… April 18, 1909

 

A Note from the Past

At the end of our visit, Lin Yu-chen gives us an extra treat, taking us to the reservoir’s other side to shine a flashlight on a faint note scratched into the ceiling, apparently left by a cement mason who worked on the project. Seen again more than a century after the mason inscribed it, the text provides a fascinating footnote on this Taiwanese–Japanese–British “joint venture.”