Beitou Hot Spring Museum

This guide to the Beitou Hot Spring Museum in Taipei begins with a 1994 school field trip that stumbled on an abandoned, mineral-streaked building nobody nearby could identify. It traces the structure back to the Beitou Public Bathhouse, built by Japan's colonial government between 1911 and 1913 and said to be the largest public bathhouse in East Asia, and the decades of quieter uses that followed after 1945. Stand in the tiled bathing hall downstairs, then climb to the tatami lounge above, lit by its octagonal windows.