The Hsinchu Monopoly Bureau was built in 1934. It soon became the distribution center for cigarettes and alcohol in the Hsinchu area. After World War II, its name was changed to the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau--Hsinchu Branch. The three-story modernist building was designed by the Japanese architect Sutejirou Umezawa, whose conception for it stressed horizontal lines. The building becomes progressively lower the farther from its middle. Its exterior is tiled. When it was built, the style of the building was very unusual.