Qualla: Former Tait & Co. Merchant House

Former Tait & Co. Merchant House: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Allervous, CC BY-SA 4.0. The building at Anping has had more careers than most people. In 1867, it was a merchant house for Tait & Company, a British trading firm that had arrived in Taiwan after the Treaty of Tientsin pried open the island's harbors to foreign commerce. Then it became a Japanese salt company office. Then a Taiwanese government bureau. Then a wax museum. Each incarnation stripped away the previous one's purpose and layered on something new, but the building's white colonial facade has persisted through all of them -- a two-story structure with green-glazed arcade railings that looks like it could have been transplanted from any European trading outpost in Asia.

Image: Allervous | CC BY-SA 4.0

Former Tait & Co. Merchant House: The Treaty That Opened the Door

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mk2010, CC BY-SA 4.0. In June 1858, the Qing dynasty signed the Treaty of Tientsin in Tianjin, and among its many consequences was the opening of several Taiwanese ports to international trade. Anping, the harbor district of what is now Tainan, became one of them. Foreign merchants flooded in, and Tai...

Image: Mk2010 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Former Tait & Co. Merchant House: Salt, Opium, and the End of Foreign Trade

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonashtand, CC BY-SA 4.0. When Japan took control of Taiwan in 1895, the new colonial government moved quickly to monopolize the island's most profitable trades. Camphor and opium became state enterprises, and foreign trading houses like Tait & Company found themselves squeezed out. The company left Taiwa...

Image: Jonashtand | CC BY-SA 4.0

Former Tait & Co. Merchant House: Wax Figures and Immigrant Stories

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rybloo, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1979, the building was transformed into the Taiwan Development Historical Materials Wax Museum. The ground floor now tells the story of immigration to Taiwan -- the waves of settlers from mainland China, the indigenous peoples who preceded them, the Dutch and Spanish colonizer...

Image: Rybloo | CC BY-SA 3.0