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During the Japanese era, the Taiwan Governor-General's Office stipulated the monopoly on opium in 1897, and successively included camphor (1899), salt (1899), tobacco (1906), and liquor (1922) into the monopoly business. The "Taiwan Governor-General's Office Monopoly Bureau Taipei South Gate Factory" was established in 1899 as an important production base for the manufacture and testing of two major monopolized products: camphor and opium. In 1901, it was renamed the South Gate Factory, and in 1931, it was renamed the Taipei South Gate Factory. It was the only state-owned camphor processing plant in Taiwan during the Japanese era. After the war, the factory was taken over by the government. In 1947, following the February 28 incident, Taiwan's monopoly business was reduced to three items: tobacco, liquor, and camphor. The factory was renamed the Taiwan Provincial Camphor Refinery in 1952, and then renamed the Taiwan Provincial Camphor Factory in 1956. In December 1967, camphor was opened up to private enterprise, and the factory ceased operations and was abandoned. Today, only the item warehouse (Little White Palace), camphor warehouse (Red Building), and a 400-ton water storage tank remain, with the current site area being less than one-eighth of that during the Japanese colonial period. In 1998, the South Gate Factory was designated as a national historic site by the Ministry of the Interior. Starting in 2004, the Taiwan Museum, in collaboration with the Cultural Affairs Council (formerly the Council for Cultural Affairs), implemented the "Taiwan Museum System" under the Capital Cultural Zone plan, which involves the restoration and reuse of historical spaces in the city as museum spaces. In 2006, the land and buildings of the factory were transferred from the National Property Bureau to the Taiwan Museum. The historic buildings were restored and reused as exhibition halls, and a new storage facility was built. The restoration process, led by the architectural firm of James T. C. Yen, involved a multidisciplinary approach encompassing architectural design, structural engineering, electrical and mechanical equipment, preservation, archaeology, traditional craftsmanship, history, and engineering.