Encore Garden
Encore Garden (亞哥花園), located in the Dakeng Scenic Area of Beitun District, Taichung, is a now-closed amusement park and was Taiwan’s first European-style garden-themed amusement park. It was once one of the major recreational destinations in Taiwan and ranked among the top ten privately operated amusement parks for many years.
(The entrance today)
The park was known for its wide variety of flowers and exotic trees, as well as Taiwan’s only nighttime water dance show and water-screen movie at the time. It also featured amusement rides and live theater performances, including singing and dancing.
Encore Garden was founded in 1982. Its founder purchased hillside land in the Dakeng area and developed it into the park, gaining popularity through media promotion and European-style landscaping. At that time, Dakeng was still largely a rural area.
In 1984, Encore Garden became one of the top ten tourist attractions in Taiwan Province and remained in the top five for three consecutive years. For example, in 1989 the park reached 1.5 million visitors, ranking No. 6 overall in Taiwan and No. 1 among amusement parks. It maintained over one million visitors annually until 1993. Several popular Taiwanese game shows were also filmed there. The following video shows the park in its earlier state:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtwzP1lBkFY
(stage area)
Because of its “garden” concept, Encore Garden had a lower rate of repeat visitors compared to more mechanically oriented theme parks, while competition from newly opened parks increased. After the 1999 921 Earthquake, visitor numbers dropped sharply. In 2008, the park officially closed and has remained abandoned since.
In 2011, the park was auctioned due to unpaid taxes, and the 32-hectare site was eventually sold for NT$505.3 million to a construction company. In 2014, the British Metro newspaper ranked Encore Garden as one of the Top 10 Creepiest Abandoned Amusement Parks in the World (No. 8). At that time, the site was still heavily secured, and entering it was a significant challenge. Overgrown vegetation and eerie remnants—such as abandoned masks—created a distinctly unsettling atmosphere.
https://spectralcodex.com/beitun-encore-garden/
In mid-2017, a supercar dealer leased the parking area for NT$200,000 per month and converted it into Taiwan’s first multi-level racing track. In 2018, the Taichung City Government stated that the racing track did not comply with zoning regulations.
Today, the park appears to be on the verge of complete demolition. The grass has been cleared, the rides have been entirely removed, and the remaining buildings are likely to disappear in the near future. The fences have been removed, the roads are easily accessible, and the buildings can also be entered without difficulty. The view is wide and unobstructed.
Dakeng Ghost Village
By chance, I found the entrance to the famous Dakeng Ghost Village. Now everything has been torn down. The roads are barely recognizable anymore.
Google Maps shows that in 2014 there was nothing there; in 2018, the often-seen old structures appear, with clearly newer buildings on the left; and by 2022, everything had been demolished.
(About 200 meters further to the left, tall silver grass and fallen trees make it impossible to continue.)
A bit further down, a gate suggests that there may have been some kind of park here as well. I went in for about 300 meters.
After around 50 meters, I saw a large building that seemed to indicate a campsite or park. It was apparently a place where Taiwanese youth once enjoyed their innocence.
Terraced levels suggest shared use, but very little is still recognizable. In the end, the road becomes impassable. Later, I discovered another entrance on Google Maps—another attempt in a few months.
