Presidential Office Building

Interesting place to visit that’s full of history and insights from the knowledgeable volunteer guide.

The guide is an hour long and probably you can plan for two hours to walk around the place after the tour to capture those nice architectural and historical images.

Incredible building with lots of informative exhibits about democracy and social movements in Taiwan. It was really fast to go through security when we were there. We went on one of the full day open house days so there also was a live jazz performance inside.

An impressive building from the Japanese colonial period. Usually, you can enter weekday mornings, however it's also possible to enter during a few select weekends when more of the building is accessible and you can take pictures. Most of what you can look round is a museum, but there's not that much in the way of English explanation.

Presidential Office Building

The Presidential Office Building was built during the Japanese colonial period to house the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. An architectural design contest inviting architects to submit construction specifications was held in two stages in 1906 and 1910. Eventually, the work designed by Uheiji Nagano was partly adopted, but Matsunosuke Moriyama produced the final design by taking Uheiji Nagano’s work and modifying it. In Moriyama's design, the central tower was heightened and the locations for the two side entrances were altered. Construction began on the building in 1912. The entire building was completed in 1919. During the Second World War, the building suffered heavy bombing from the Allied Powers. The central guard tower at the main entrance and part of the exterior walls were severely damaged. Fires raging in the building destroyed its roof and exterior. After the war, extensive work was undertaken to repair the damage and the building temporarily served as the administration hall for the Taiwan Provincial Government. In 1950, the building became the Office of the President. The building was built in a late-Renaissance style, influenced by the English architect Norman Shaw and referred to as "the Tatsuno specifications”. With its decorative red-and-white horizontal bands, the building featured classical elements such as porticos, pediments and gables, vaulted windows, oeil-de-boeuf windows, brackets, and colonnades. The ground plan of the building introduced a double courtyard layout in reference to the Chinese character "日." In fact, the layout was chosen for its strong earthquake resistance. The east, south, and west sides of the building have balconies to accommodate climatic characteristics in the subtropical zone, while the northern side does not since it receives much less sunlight. This large and magnificent building representing the evolution of Taiwan's modern history has borne witness to Taiwan's political and economic development and has become an important landmark in Taipei city.

It is a real special experience I would say. The building is spectular and well maintained especially the red bricks. Highly recommend to tourists to pay a half day trip.

Historic place in the center of Taipei. This is where the President of Taiwan works and other important political entities. Guided tours are being held everyday from 9am-11.30am. They have tour guides who can speak English, Chinese, and Japanese. The tour focuses on the architecture of the building itself (since it's quite historic) and other Presidential artifacts. There are special exhibitions also.

Make sure you take time to see the Double
10 show, which runs every half hour from
1900-2200 through 10/10. Such an inspiring light show that brought tears to our eyes and made us proud to call Taiwan our temporary home! Pre show broadcast was in Chinese and English, ample seating available. Show lasted 11 minutes.

It is great that Taiwan government opens the Presidential Office for visitors to visit especially Chinese citizen so that they can understand the difference between the two Chinese countries. Indeed many of Taiwan culture n preservation is of Japanese origin.

A very interesting place to visit in Taipei. You can learn a bit about Taiwan's history or just enjoy the building and what's on display. You can take fun photos and even a VR video with the president and download it to your phone/computer - a very nice little feature.
While it's regularly open on weekdays in the morning, best will be if you manage to come on a Saturday (it's usually open for one Saturday per month).
During weekdays there will be some guided tours in Mandarin and there are audio guides available for free which allow you your own pace but with limited rental time. On these days only rooms on the first floor are open to the public.
During Saturdays, you can take a guided tour in Mandarin or English and even see some more exclusive areas of the first and second floor.
Make sure to bring your passport, otherwise you'll be denied entry. Nothing else needed, entrance is free and doesn't require registration unless you're traveling in a group.

We went here for the free guided tour offered on weekday mornings. The line for the tour is at the back of the building, at the intersection of Bo’ai and Baoqing Roads. We stood in line for about half an hour and then went through an airport-style security check. The security personnel were courteous and helpful.

You can carry your bags with you or use the lockers provided. The usual rules apply - photos without flash, be mindful of off-limits areas. There are English-speaking guides for those who do not speak Chinese.

The exhibits are all housed at the ground floor. They offer a glimpse of the life of the young nation’s presidents and showcase the country’s achievements, aspirations, and democratic ideals. There is a small exhibition full of beautiful photos of the island and its people.

After the tour, you can go to the gift shop for souvenirs and postcards, which you can send by mail at the in-house post office. We stayed for 1.5 hours.

If you want more Taiwanese politics, visit the nearby Presidential and Vice Presidential Artifacts Museum at the intersection of Changsha and Bo’ai Roads. The museum provides an in-depth look at the role and political life of the country’s top two leaders and the history of elections in Taiwan.

It’s truly a live demo of Taiwan’s democracy history! We’ve leaned quite a lot here.
There are volunteers who guide each batch of visitors and gave excellent explanations for each place!

Highly recommended tourist destination. It's a guided tour with lots of interesting exhibits and information, offered in English, Chinese, and Japanese. The history of the building was incredibly interesting, and our tour guide was very good about answering questions.

Power to the People, it’s a precious opportunity to visit Presidential office on opening day, to look the amazing building and the historical of the democracy in Taiwan.

A unique and historic place in Taiwan. Must go place if you have the opportunity. Get to know about history of Taiwan

Beautiful light show for the double ten festival! I actually feel proud to be part of the celebration this year!

It is a historical building very interesting place to visit. It is also the office for the President of Taiwan.

Built during the Japanese colonial time, this building is used to be the governor house of Japanese government. If you look at the building from the top of it, you will see there're two adjacent empty squares. That's the Japanese character "Sun" since "Japan" means the "sunrise land".
Fun facts, it also looks like a guy's staring at you. The tower is the face and the the wings are the shoulders. The rumor says it's designed to tell the people to behave cause the government is watching them.
If you want to learn more, you can join a free walking tour hosted by TourMeAway to learn more about the history.

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It would be a perfect day to see the light show on Double Tenth Day and I’m proud of being Taiwanese to share our true value of democracy & freedom !

This is a place has a period of history that Taiwanese people get freedom and resistance. We need leader leads us to be the one who is free to do anything we want. So this place has a significant symbol we should visit to revive us memory bringing us to the back time of Japanese occupation. And we should always remember that what we strive to get this phase now so peaceful and how our ancestors engage in political activity to use an antiwar method to show their thoughts. At the end I suggest you to come here to see how the Taiwanese people vote the president and to feel the atmosphere of how we can get the free living style at now.

Very interesting if you love history, they provided us with an English tour guide.Thank you so much.