Ja. Well, I grew up there and used to hear stories of tunnels from Dazhi all the way down town that jeeps could drive through. I assume Japanese Era things that Chiang kept. In junior high we went through some unfinished tunnels (as in crawling hands and knees with no plaster on the walls) in NW Taipei. My friends even found grenades there. All very inadvisable. I remember once the candles going low while we tried to catch our breath down inside one. Gawd, the things you survive just cause you’re a stupid kid. Sounds very interesting but also sounds like it will be coffee shops in ten years. Sorry.
i’ve been poking around myself (unprompted by this forum) and I think I stumbled upon the site in question (yes, near the ‘famous’ night market and the ‘famous’ hotel and the ‘famous’ temple and the ‘famous’ museum), but I’d appreciate directions to the actual tunnel entrance. I’ve got experience with these matters, so don’t think I’ll mess things up. I really hope to see this place, so any information would be appreciated.
I’ve been poking around myself (unprompted by this forum) and I think I stumbled upon the site in question (yes, near the ‘famous’ night market and the ‘famous’ hotel and the ‘famous’ temple and the ‘famous’ museum), but I’d appreciate directions to the actual tunnel entrance. I’ve got experience with these matters, so don’t think I’ll mess things up. I really hope to see this place, so any information would be appreciated.[/quote]
Fascinating story… I already wondered if there were any WW2 era remains around Taiwan, except for the POW camps. Damn, I hope nobody posts any directions, else I might start boring my GF with going hiking there, being fascibated by ugly old heaps of concrete… just like in Normandy and the Ardennes on our recent trip to Europe
Anyway: Take care with those 65+ years old 'nades, I recon the Japanese didn’t engineer the fuses etc. to be safe after rusting for decades… especially with the Type 91/97 being quite dangerous even back then.
There’s a cool ex-army underground base/tunnel entrance just at the bottom of Muzha cemetary, looks like something interesting was in there, the army post is abandoned but it’s still sealed off.
You’ll find military tunnels at the entrance of Fuyang eco-park. Several pillboxes can also be found within the park. There’s probably an underground system of tunnels there given the peculiar topography of the park.
Several years ago a Taiwan friend and his date, along with myself and a female friend went to Hukoa area above - on the hill. There was a cool outdoor resteraunt my friend knew about. We had a nice Sunday lunch and started to leave on or scoots. As we were doing so, we spotted a newly build dirt road that intersected the entrance to the driveway to the resteraunt. Being a sucker, we took the new road. It just went up the mountain and became a very large dirt road, all freshly made. We kept going for severl k. We came upon a HUGE stadium and what looked like an oval concrete race track. We all should have realized we had strayed into an area where we shouldn’t be kept going anyway. Later we started down a hill and came out at on the wrong side of a gate manned by two military guards with automatic weapons. We were ordered to dismount and while one guard covered us all with his weapon, we were forced to show ID. One guard immediately called for reinforcements and soon we had several more armed troops surrounding us. My Taiwanese friends were trying to explain how we came to be there but wasn’t getting much in edgewise. He and all of us were being yelled at and it was quite clear that we were in some deep shit. Keep in mind there were no signs warning about entrance etc, but the parade grounds should have been enough to make us turn back. A few beer and curiosity got the better of all of us. A ranking officer then showed up and was a bit more calm. My friends again explained the situation and after about about 1/2 hr. of his questions, he reluctantly let us pass the gate. My friend later told me that we had come close to arrest for espionage.
My point is, I would steer clear of even abandoned or unused military sites. The military can take this pretty seriously, as well they should.
If “you” refers to the original poster named Dangermouse, then I guess he or she is not going to answer. Last post end of August 2007, last Visit January 2008
I didn’t see the FLICKR account name either, so can’t check. Maybe used to be a FLICKRpro user, and the pro time expired, making the old photos not visible any more…
“According to the military based at the town, yesterday’s incident was not the first to have occurred. They added town residents have regularly collected unexploded explosive devices after military drills, to profit illegally from their re-sale.”
