Ciaotou Sugar Refinery

Established during the Japanese Occupation in 1901, the Ciaotou Sugar Refinery has a history of over 100 years. It was formerly known as the Kio-A-Thau First Factory of the Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Corporation, and was renamed as the Taiwan Sugar Company Kaohsiung Plant after Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China. It is the first sugar manufacturing refinery in Taiwan that used new machinery while being a historical site that has 19 features such as a 1:1 bronze Guanyin Statue and a baroque-like tropical colonial architecture. The Refinery was one of Taiwan’s important sugar refineries during Taiwan's early sugar production.
The importance of the Ciaotou Sugar Refinery could be traced back to the Qing Dynasty as the town of Ciaotou was a key town for manufacturing cane sugar. During that time, the Taiwanese sugar industry were still composed of old-style factories as they used straw-built sugar huts after the cane sugars were harvested from the fields. The sugar huts were powered by cows and man power to extract the juices out of the cane sugar using stone mills and then cooked into sugar using giant pots. In 1901, the Kio-A-Thau Sugar Factory, which was established by the Japanese at Ciaotou, replaced the sugar huts to greatly increase the sugar production. Eventually, the second Kio-A-Thau Sugary Factory, Houbilin Sugar Factory, and the Ciwei Sugar Factory were also established in Kaohsiung City.
The Kio-A-Thau Sugar Factory stopped producing sugar in the 88th year of the Republic of China, and the Kaohsiung City Government announced that the Factory was a County-level Historic Site in September of the 91st year of the Republic of China. The Sugar Refinery has also been transformed into becoming involved in the leisure and sightseeing industry. Groups can make appointments to visit the sugar factory and take a ride on the small train (Taiwan Sugar Railway). The Refinery will also arrange tour guides to explain the process of producing sugar and describe the development history of the Refinery. The plant also contains a wealth of natural ecology as beetles, damselflies, red-bellied tree squirrels, globe skimmers, fairy pittas, Muller’s barbets, stag beetles, and light yellow butterflies can often be seen within the Refinery. In addition, many buildings within the Refinery have remained untouched since the Japanese Occupation Era: the Japanese dormitory, the landscape garden, the bomb shelter, the ammunition depot, the red brick water tower, and the warehouse are all from that era. The valuable traces of Taiwan’s economic development can be seen through these precious buildings.