Today, I rode my Lancelot passing by the government of Taichung City, which has been the politicial center of the Great Taichung since the period of Japanese colonization.

However, today I'd like to go to another building: the Municipal Office Building(台中市役所). This building was pretty staring and it was designed of the style of Baroque(巴洛克) and Classicism(古典主義), which has been popular in the red-bricked architecture. It's a critical witness of the development of Taichung City for the past one century, and it also has preserved many kinds of precious traces for us.

In the western Taiwan, people reclaimed many fields and farmlands and build many irrigation ditches. This area had formed an important area of the agriculture. After 1895, the time of the Japanese colonization, the authority set several managment stations to take over these irrigation devices to control the distribution of the water as well as the amount of the harvest. The management station in Taichung was the largest part of the whole land at that time.

In the middle period of the Japanese colonization, the authority decided to enlarge the controlling area and extended this Municipal Office Building to the scale we saw today.

After the recovery of Taiwan, the Municipal Office Building had been the Taichung office of KMT and it was returned to the government of the Taichung City and became one part of the official institutions.

After 921 earthquake in 1999, the old building had a great damage. The government registrated it as a historical spot in Taichung City and made some payment for its repair.

In 2005, the mayor of Taichung City, Jason Hu(胡志強)'s promoton, it became the space of art and culture again for the citizens in Taichung City.

Today, I saw an exhibition in Municipal Office Building. To honor the contribution for Wang Erth-Chang in creating and promoting of art. The government held "the Eastern Fauvism: Wang Erth-Chang Commenmorate Exhibition" in Municipal Office Building, showing Mr. Wang's works of art in his several periods of his life, including oil paintings, paintings in watercolors and Chinese paintings..., and Mr. Wang's achievements in martial art.

PS: The Eastern Fauvism: starting from our minds, using the bright colors and forceful using of brushes.

Mr. Wang was born in Hopei Provience, China in 1919. His family loved collections which inspired his interest in art and formed his great ability. Mr. Wang's paintings presented the balance and harmony of the world. These vivid works provided us a feeling of the beauty of the nature. Just like his paintings, he looked very gentle, calm and steady. He was also very versatile in many kinds of art works.

The exhibition in the first floor is oil paintings, and there were the introduction of his life, his Chinese paintings and martial art.

On the second floor, there were many Chinese paintngs and his martial exhibition.

On the third floor, most specially, there was a simulation of his workshop.

The third floor was the top part of the building, which preserved the wood structure. I opened the small window secretly, and took a look at the view outside the window.

Municipal Office Building and the train station of Taichung City have witnessed the historical development of the Taichung City. From Japanese colonization, Martial demonstration time to the period of democracy. It is still keeping company with us and preserves the historical traces for us. Standing at the door of the building, I could feel I was standing in the stream of the time and became a part of the long time stream as well.