Cultural Heritage Department of Taichung City

Based on the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, topics falling into the cultural heritage category include “historic sites, historic structures and settlements,” “relics,” “cultural attractions,” “traditional arts,” “folk art, handicrafts and related artifacts,” “antiquities” and “natural landscapes.” Besides natural landscapes (governed by the Council of Agriculture), the rest are all regulated by the Cultural Heritage Administration Center. 　Since the implementation of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act on May, 1982, Taichung City started to work on cultural heritage preservation. The listed cultural properties cover many aspects including temples, mansions, train stations, stone tablets, governmental offices, stone arches, tombs, industrial facilities, military facilities, irrigation facilities, etc. Among them, 37 are listed as historic sites, 5 as relics, 76 as historic structures, 3 as antiquities. As for intangible cultural properties, 6 are listed as folk art and 2 as traditional arts. “Guangfu Provincial Government Military Dependents Village in Wufeng” is listed as a cultural landscape. 　The cultural heritage preservation of the city has also experienced various changes with time. In 1997, the Cultural Heritage Protection Act was amended, granting cities the right to designate municipal heritages. The earthquake in 1999 shattered many historic structures located in central Taiwan which pushed the central government to add a new regulation on historic structure’s preservation in the year 2000. In 2005, the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act was largely changed with the addition of cultural landscapes, folk art, handicrafts and related artifacts and traditional arts as individual categories. When Taichung County and Taichung City merged in 2010, cultural properties were further integrated with all county historic sites and relics redesignated as municipal historic sites and municipal relics.