- Chinese Name: 海關博物館
- Year of Establishment: 1996
- Located At: Taipei (Northern Taiwan)
- Did You Know That… ?
- Many smugglers attempted to take advantage of religion by concealing their illegal wares in holy objects such as hollowed-out Buddha statues. Such tampered relics, exotic animal pelts, and more are part of the Custom Museum's unique displays.
- English Address:
- No. 13 Tacheng Street, Datong District, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
- Contact Number: +886-2-2550-5500
- Opening Hours: 8:00am to 5:00pm(Monday through Friday; advanced booking required)
- Website:http://museum.customs.gov.tw/
Inside the Customs Building in Taipei is a museum that houses a rich collection on the long history and fine traditions of the Customs Administration. Through exhibitions and guided tours, the museum shows how the law enforcement agency has busted illegal activities and defended public safety for over 160 years.
Currently the museum is open to groups by reservation only, but it is also open to the public for one week during the tax return season every year. The museum occupies two floors that are divided into five major exhibition areas: 'Clearance Operations,' 'Anti-Smuggling Investigations,' 'Maritime and Lighthouses Administration,' 'International Customs Administration,' and 'Customs Historical Documents & Artifacts.'
First-generation technology
The Customs Clearance Procedures area covers how imported and exported goods are processed or cleared, customs tariffs, trade management, and statistics. The displayed items are related to clearance operations in various periods, including passports and boat licenses issued during the imperial Qing Dynasty, overseas travel tickets from the Japanese colonial period, and government-issued silver bullions engraved with the Chinese characters of 'Guangdong Customs.'
Also displayed in the museum are the technology and tools used for customs clearance in the past, such as certificates exclusively used for the payment of customs duties, abacuses, calculators, and the first-generation mainframe computer that laid the foundation for the automation of customs clearance procedures. In addition, items such as first-generation seal strips and modern-day electronic RFID seal strips, and vintage uniforms worn by customs officers on inspection duty, can all be found here.
Seizing illegal goods
Smuggling has begun since ancient times and no country can be spared from such illegal activities. Taiwan, which is surrounded by the sea with 1,400 kilometers of coastlines, is an ideal environment for air and sea smuggling. In the Anti-Smuggling exhibition area, seized and confiscated illegal goods are on display together with information on how smuggled goods are handled and processed in Taiwan.
As the methods used in drug smuggling have been continuously evolved and become even more sophisticated, the Customs Administration utilizes professional knowledge, experience, modern inspection techniques, and drug-sniffing dogs in investigating drug trafficking. The museum exhibits various samples of drugs such as heroin, opium, marijuana, and poppy seeds, as well as knives, firearms, explosives and other items used in smuggling cases.
Stricter customs inspections have significantly decreased attempts to illegally import wild animals in recent years. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has praised Taiwan for its 'remarkable achievements in fighting illegal trade on wildlife,' thus establishing the Customs Administration's image as a protector of endangered species of wild animals and plants.
Maritime and lighthouses administration
At the end of the Opium War in 1842, the Qing Dynasty government signed the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking and agreed to open five ports in China to foreign trade. However, the Qing government lacked the experience in building lighthouses and other related facilities. Thus Robert Hart, inspector-general of China's Imperial Maritime Customs Service, became the unlikely candidate to supervise the construction and maintenance of lighthouses in China.
Those became the world's only lighthouses administered by a national customs administration, but now all lighthouses in Taiwan are managed by the Ministry of Transportation. The exhibition in the Maritime and Lighthouses Administration section stands witness to an era when the lighthouses were built and maintained by the Customs Administration.
This exhibition area also displays equipment used by customs ships while investigating illegal trafficking activities during the Japanese colonial period, as well as other related historical objects such as magnetic compasses, alcohol cans, gas signal lights, hand-polished glass lenses, stern lights, and miniature models of ships used in implementing customs operations in the past.
International exchanges
Photos and artifacts displayed in the 'International Customs Administration' area come from more than twenty other countries, reflecting a long history of exchanges and contacts between Taiwan and foreign customs authorities. These include standard customs officer uniforms, commemorative plates, badges, flags, and coins of foreign countries collected by customs officers. Each item serves to demonstrate the Customs Administration has worked around the clock selflessly for the country since its establishment in 1854.