It was a landmark- one of the poshest addresses in Taipei with all the latest amenities. Royalty and celebrities gathered in its luxurious halls or stayed in what, at the time, was the best accommodation that money could buy in Taiwan. Today, you can’t visit it for any amount of money, though- unless, that is, you can make it to the National Taiwan Museum’s newly-opened Railway Department Park. There, a bit of the turn-of-the-century glamor that made this place so special has been resurrected in a special exhibit called Taiwan Railway Hotel (1908-1945). Here, you can see what Taiwan’s first-ever hotel looked like, meet the famous figures who once graced its halls, and learn about the radically new concepts and contraptions it introduced to the island. Museum research assistant Feng Chia-fu has taken a few minutes out of his day to talk with us about a building that would have dazzled the first Taiwanese people to see it.