Hayashi Department Store

June 30, 2013, marked the day the Hayashi Department Store, the most significant old building in Tainan, completed its restoration and opened to the public. On that day, queues started forming from over 7 AM and continued uninterrupted until the afternoon. Subsequent opening hours saw similar queues, with everyone happily waiting to enter this "five-story building" that opened in 1932 during the Japanese colonial era, featuring the most advanced elevator of its time. The area around what is now Zhongzheng Road was then known as Suehiro-cho, a very bustling district in early Tainan. However, with the end of the Japanese colonial era, the operators returned to Japan, and the Hayashi Department Store fell silent. After nearly half a century, the people of Tainan had forgotten its past glory. One year after its restoration, on June 14, 2014, the Hayashi Department Store was reborn as a department store in the old city. On this day, there was a lively parade on Zhongzheng Road featuring Japanese colonial era costumes, and the excitement made it seem as if all of Tainan had come out.