Ah, I think this sublime love tragedy of modern film history has come to an end, some years before. It certainly won’t be shown in this cinema ((中壢新明戲院)) anymore. Here, fortune favored the diligent—or perhaps the stubborn. I passed by several times, and it seemed impossible to get in. Until one day, a door to the second floor was open. I talked the Vietnamese migrant worker into letting me in. The structure of the cinema is still recognizable. Not everything is exactly safe, of course. The cinema was on the second floor; the third floor was probably a market hall. The

still in process Hospitals are closely connected with Taiwanese culture, but also with fear. Similar feelings exist in Western culture as well—after all, hospitals are often an inspiring source for horror movie ideas—but this sentiment is even stronger in Taiwan. Taiwanese people tend to avoid places where people have died, especially if the death was unnatural. There is a fear of provoking the anger of the deceased soul or spirit. As a result, no Taiwanese person would normally visit cemeteries or abandoned hospitals—it would be seen as tempting fate. Fortunately, we have Mr. X, who managed to find an entrance. (pharmacy

ed. 2026/5/10 Once again, pure clickbait — but I genuinely love Taichung. It is both the most modern city and the most decayed one. And I love it for exactly that. (Modern architecture, as Taichung likes to present itself) Taichung is home to Taiwan’s most famous truly haunted building (or ghost house, the Chien-Yueh Building, 千越大樓). This ugliness—or beauty, which is really a philosophical question—lies just two minutes from the main railway station. After all, the building has even made it into the Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank. Originally operating as the Chien-Yueh Department Store, it once housed Taichung’s first ice-skating rink

Deep in the mountains of Xizhi stands a castle known as Swiss Villa (瑞士花園廣場) that has been abandoned for more than 20 years, along with an entire row of dilapidated townhouses. The scene is bleak and unsettling. Yet the villa community itself consists of 189 households, and many people still live there today.It is probably the most well-known and easily accessible “ghost house” area in New Taipei City. Even now, one can sense how many hopes and expectations were once invested in this formerly very expensive community. The architecture evokes a strange mix of fake Switzerland, Baroque elements, and a Black

— do not throw away any trash. The Xiluo Theater (西螺大戲院) is located in the East Market area of Xiluo Township. It ceased operations around the 1980s and is now considered one of the best-known lost places in the area — and quite easy to access. The building can be explored with caution, but never during heavy rain or strong winds. It is not maintained, and sections of the roof could collapse without warning. The predecessor of the Xiluo Theater was Xiluo-za, first built during the Japanese colonial period in the 1930s. It was reconstructed in 1937 as a two-story building

It was Taiwan’s national tragedy in recent history — the Jiji Earthquake, which claimed many lives, destroyed roads and houses, and even affected the global economy. Well known is the Earthquake Museum in Wufeng, while Jiufen Ershan has since faded from memory. It remains an accessible place, yet abandoned in the face of the tragedy that once unfolded here. Jiufen Ershan (九份二山) is located on the border between Hexing Village in Zhongliao Township and Nangang Village in Guoxing Township. The mountain forms the watershed between the Jiucaihu River, a tributary of the Nangang River, and the Pinglin River, a tributary of

All the praise should really go first to this website: https://spectralcodex.com/hsinchu-guobin-theater/ For a long time, Taiwan had a vibrant cinema culture and even its own film industry. Those days are gone. Old movie theaters can’t compete with modern cinema complexes and Netflix anymore. I don’t want to sound like “grandpa telling war stories,” but I visited three places. Cinema 1: Jinbao TheaterLocated at No. 488, Zhongzheng E. Rd, Zhubei City. The building is still in use—there’s a large arcade on the ground floor. Some construction work seems to be going on. You can enter the building via stairwells, but the cinema