Built in 1867, the Talt & Co. Merchant House is a building encompassing an area that is twenty feet long and twelve feet wide. Its principal business was sugar and camphor export. You may not be familiar with the name Talt & Co., but it is very likely you have heard about the famous Lipton tea, Nestlé milk powder, Disney products and so on - these were all imported by Talt & Co.
During the Japanese Occupation Period, the Merchant House was renamed as the "Japan Salt (&) Social Business Office", later, in 1945, the name was changed to “Tainan Salt Field Office”. The merchant house was briefly used as a dormitory. In 1981, the government decided to repurpose it as the “Taiwan Development Wax Museum”. In addition to the lifelike wax figures provided by Chi Mei Corporation, there are also a number of exhibitions worth visiting.
The Talt & Co. Merchant House faces south and has three floors. A main staircase is located in the middle of the main building space. The first floor was originally the employees’ dormitory, with a corridor in the middle. To adapt to the hot and humid weather in Taiwan, arched hallways were constructed on the east, west and south sides of the building for ventilation. The surrounding cream walls and green glazed vases which decorate the corridors present a fresh, simple and minimalist style which is completely different to any other traditional houses in Anping.※Hours: 8:30-17:30
※Admission (including the Anping Treehouse): NT 50/full price, NT 25/half price, 20% off for groups of 30+ people
※Location: No. 108, Gubao St.
※Tel: 06 -3913901