Base Camp Zhongzheng: Five Walkable Targets From Finders Hotel Fu Qian, Date-Scoped to Nov 2–6

Base Position

Finders Hotel Fu Qian (路境行旅-府前館) is at No. 86, Sec. 1, Chongqing South Road, Zhongzheng District — one block south of the Presidential Office, inside the footprint of the Qing walled city (城中). Taipei Main Station is a 10-minute walk north; Ximen is 11 minutes west. Telephone +886-2-2389-9595.

The position is unusually good for a five-day trip. The densest concentration of surviving Japanese-colonial civic architecture in Taipei is within 400 metres of the door, and none of it requires transit. Every target below is reached on foot.

1. 總統府 — Presidential Office Building

The 1919 Japanese Governor-General's Office, still the working seat of the head of state. The red-brick tower is visible from the hotel; the interior is not, and most visitors never realise it is open.

Prohibited: large backpacks, food, pets. Open all five trip days — the weekday-only rule works in this trip's favour.

2. 撫臺街洋樓 — Futai Street Mansion

Built 1910; the oldest surviving privately-built structure inside the old walled city. Qilian-shore stone at ground level, timber above, mansard roof — neighbours called it 石頭厝, "the stone house." Designated a municipal historic site in 1997; operated since 2013 by the Taiwan Historical Resource Management Society as a small museum of the old city, with period photographs of Yanping South Road under Japanese rule.

3. 國立臺灣博物館 土銀展示館 — Land Bank Exhibition Hall

A 1933 bank hall converted into a natural history museum. Full dinosaur and pterosaur skeletons stand in the banking chamber, and the original vault is open — visitors walk through the blast door into the strongroom. The bank's own history is displayed alongside the palaeontology, which is the point: the building is the largest object in the collection.

4. 中山堂 — Zhongshan Hall (former Taipei Kōkaidō)

Completed 1936 as the Taipei Public Hall, on the site of the Qing governor's yamen. On 25 October 1945 the second-floor banquet room hosted the ceremony at which Japanese forces surrendered Taiwan to the Chinese theatre command. The room survives.

MRT Ximen exits 4 and 5 surface beside it, which makes this the natural hinge between the hotel and Ximending on foot.

5. 牯嶺街 — Guling Street Old Book Street

Taiwan's first second-hand book street, which began in 1945 when repatriating Japanese residents sold off libraries at the kerbside to raise passage money. It peaked at roughly 200 stalls before the city moved much of the trade to Guanghua Market in 1973. What remains is a handful of shops.

• 松林書局 — No. 17. The street's first bookshop, trading since 1951; roughly 100,000 volumes stacked floor to ceiling rather than shelved. Opens irregularly — no published hours.
• 人文書舍 — No. 62-2. 11:00–18:00.
• 書香城 — No. 64. 10:00–21:00.
• 新舊書屋 — No. 62-1.
• 高老闆的店 — No. 20-2. Saturday and Sunday afternoons only — closed for the entire Nov 2–6 window.

Window Summary — What Is Shut When

The efficient sequencing given those constraints: Presidential Office on any morning before 11:30; Futai Street Mansion and Zhongshan Hall on Mon 2 Nov when the museum is shut; Land Bank Exhibition Hall from Tue 3 Nov onward; Guling Street on a weekday afternoon accepting that two of the five shops may be closed.

Weather Bearing on This List

Early November runs 22–25°C by day under the northeast monsoon, with persistent drizzle rather than downpours. Every target here is indoors or a short covered walk, which makes this cluster the correct wet-day fallback for the trip. Guling Street is the exception — the bookshops are small, cramped and unpleasant in rain.

Sources: hotel address per operator listings and Google Hotels; Presidential Office visiting rules per current published visitor guidance; Futai Street Mansion hours per Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs; Land Bank Exhibition Hall hours and pricing per National Taiwan Museum; Zhongshan Hall per Taipei City Zhongshan Hall Management Office; Guling Street shop roster per bookshop survey reporting. Checked 5 Aug 2026. Confirm hours in late October — this brief is filed three months ahead of the window.