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（National historical monuments -the Old Chiayi Prison）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　Earliest development in Taiwan begins with the Dutch moving northward and eastward from Tainan (then the capital of Taiwan), crossing over Changhua (Ban-hsien), Hsinchu (Chuchian), to the northernmost Taipei (Mengchia). There were more than hundreds of historical monuments in the middle, but how should one distinguish between these historical trajectories of time?

（County historical monuments-the Chiayi historicla museum）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　In the past there were three methods of classifying historical monuments: level 1 historical monuments, level 2 historical monuments, and level 3 historical monuments; these are divided into 22 types: city walls, temples, ancestral halls, Confucian temples, academies, compounds, street houses, gardens, archways, old cemeteries, cannons, lighthouses, consulates, churches, museums, official bureaus, train stations, banks, schools, hospitals, courts, and aboriginal tribal locations. After 1997, the terminology of classifications began to change, as national, municipal, and county and city historical monuments. Under this scheme, level one historical monuments are national historical monuments, level two historical monuments are municipal historical monuments, and level 3 historical monuments are city and county historical monuments. Other than changes in the classifications of the three levels of historical monuments, 22 types which are divided based on construction methods and functions, and later they became 12 types, which are city walls, frontier juncture, official bureaus, academies, compounds, gardens, temples, churches, archways, plaques, tombs, bridges, and other buildings.

（County historical monuments-Chiayi train station）
（picture source：photo by this team）

　　With changes of the times, there are more and more people concerned with such cultural assets, and there are more things that are listed as historical monuments. These historical monuments begin to produce exceptions in terms of classificatory standards, seemingly pushing for the additions for new standards, and even for redefinitions of what it means to be a historical monument. There are even historical monuments that are less than 50 years old.

　　Due to the changes in standards, historical monuments and hundred-year-old houses are no longer the same, and no longer synonymous. Now, historical monuments no longer have to be "ancient," but must be involved in the three realms of "history," "technology," and "art."

（County historical monuments-Chiayi train station）
（picture source：photo by this team）

• The historic, cultural, artistic, scientific, commemorative, or other academic value.
• The distance of the times.
• Relationship to important historical events or figures.
• Representation of the characteristics of the times, techniques, schools of construction, or locality.

• Number.
• Conditions of preservation.
• Size.
• Nearby environment.

　　There must first be application and reporting to the local authority that manages historical monuments, and the Department of the Interior, governments of direct rule, and county and city government would make evaluations and designations in order to make promulgations, then report to the Ministry of the Interior for investigations.

1. List of historical monuments in Chiayi City