• Team Members: 6, 17, 19, 26, 27, 29
• Team Leader: 19. Hong Yu
• Topic: Bajiaoluo old building in Tainan

This is my topic: Bajialuo old building.

The Octagonal Tower currently located in Yanshui was built in the 27th year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1847 AD). It is an important historical landmark of Yanshui. It was built by Ye Kaihong, a wealthy businessman of the famous sugar suburb “Ye Liancheng” business. Drawn from mainland China, it is the most distinctive typical traditional building in the area. The octagonal building is made of mainland Fuzhou fir and lime, and was completed by a Fuzhou master. It has two halls and is a two-story building. The roof adopts a palace-style spine, with an octagonal roof, and a cloister upstairs, which is made of pure wood. The first floor downstairs is made of red bricks, with carved beams and painted pillars on the front, which is very distinctive.

The octagonal building is a rare pavilion house in Taiwan. Its wooden structure is made of mainland Fuzhou fir. The entire building is supported by twelve large fir trees that are 24 feet long and runs through the first and second floors to the second floor. Beams, couplets, doors, and windows are all completed with mortise and tenon joints. The second floor is made of wooden corridors to make an octagonal shape, and the roof is in the gable style. The internal space is the same as the first floor, with one living room and four rooms, and is decorated with a large number of grids. Doors serve as walls. The front of the first floor is made of wood, while the upper half of the back wall is made of brick and the lower half is made of stone. Because the roof is divided into eight corners, it is named “Octagonal House”. It is a classic of Taiwan's loft houses. In addition, there is an 18-petal chrysanthemum decoration on the forehead of the back door, which is a symbol of the Japanese royal family. The wooden Octagonal Building with its distinctive cloisters and shutters on the second floor has a history of more than 170 years. It survived the 921 Earthquake and the Jiaxian Earthquake. However, it fell into disrepair and was even damaged during the 921 Earthquake. Juchuang completed the overall restoration project at the end of 2005. The Octagon Building once again stood tall on the streets of Yanshui with its unique and beautiful appearance. Due to the typhoon that raged in 2017, the fence and shutters on the second floor of the Octagon Building were seriously damaged. The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Tainan City Government announced in 2018 Completed the overall restoration of the second floor. The roof of the octagonal building is octagonal and has a double eaves style. There are stone carvings of lions and triangular toads on the top of the vertical ridge; and a large number of “partition doors” are used as walls. The wood carving decoration inside the building has a unique artistic flavor. The Octagonal Tower is known as a rare architectural masterpiece in Taiwan.