Solo jaunts.
I've sat on this report for a while, but finally cleared the backlog yesterday and got the photos edited and uploaded. Below are a series of minor reports, nothing particularly huge. If anything this venture was a box-ticking exercise to just get some exploring and do some sites that I had listed but hadn't seen before. The first is a long, long derelict cinema that's in a very rural backwater town of Taiwan, far away from any city, the second a school that closed JUST after covid hit Taiwan and finally another one of Taiwan's sugar factories full of trains. So here follows a report of each site, one-by-one as they happened.
楠西區華洲戲院/Huazhou cinema, Nanxi district
I don't know how this exists to be honest, given its rural location 45 minutes away from Xinying, the closest city. It's situated in a small town called Nanxi, which is another one of those towns where nobody moves in, and the vast majority move out over time; population stats show 14,000 people on the household register, dropping to 8,000 in 2023. Going on Spectral Codex's history it was built in 1969 presumably to serve townspeople who worked on the construction of Cengwen dam 10 kilometres away along with a power station. Given its location, and presumably knowing that its operational life would never be for long, it was built with absolutely no care for ornate details like Xiluo and other theatres; bare concrete walls and basic seating, purely for a functional purpose.
When construction of the dam and power station were complete in 1973, the writing was presumably on the wall that closure was coming sooner or later. One source quotes 1976 as the closure date, but the two movie posters shown are from 1982 and 1983, so going on closure dates of other cinemas I've done it would probably have closed in 1984 or 1985.
The only posters from its operational years, a Taiwanese film called Lost Lady (失足夫人) from 1982 and a Hong Kong exploitation film Horror Holiday (為愛拼生命) from 1983.
In spite of its extremely rural location, the cinema has suffered some degree of vandalism, with the entire front area covered in poor graffiti. That said, given the length of abandonment it's survived remarkably well and the fundamental structure is reasonably stable.
Stage curtains with advertising for Sarsparilla, which is a Taiwanese soft drink similar to coke.
The projectors have long since been removed, but the stands and electrical equipment still remain, and the entire floor is covered in film reels.
The austere concrete exterior
The ticket booth, still with the old advertising board.
Part 2 to follow in the next post.
I've sat on this report for a while, but finally cleared the backlog yesterday and got the photos edited and uploaded. Below are a series of minor reports, nothing particularly huge. If anything this venture was a box-ticking exercise to just get some exploring and do some sites that I had listed but hadn't seen before. The first is a long, long derelict cinema that's in a very rural backwater town of Taiwan, far away from any city, the second a school that closed JUST after covid hit Taiwan and finally another one of Taiwan's sugar factories full of trains. So here follows a report of each site, one-by-one as they happened.
楠西區華洲戲院/Huazhou cinema, Nanxi district
I don't know how this exists to be honest, given its rural location 45 minutes away from Xinying, the closest city. It's situated in a small town called Nanxi, which is another one of those towns where nobody moves in, and the vast majority move out over time; population stats show 14,000 people on the household register, dropping to 8,000 in 2023. Going on Spectral Codex's history it was built in 1969 presumably to serve townspeople who worked on the construction of Cengwen dam 10 kilometres away along with a power station. Given its location, and presumably knowing that its operational life would never be for long, it was built with absolutely no care for ornate details like Xiluo and other theatres; bare concrete walls and basic seating, purely for a functional purpose.
When construction of the dam and power station were complete in 1973, the writing was presumably on the wall that closure was coming sooner or later. One source quotes 1976 as the closure date, but the two movie posters shown are from 1982 and 1983, so going on closure dates of other cinemas I've done it would probably have closed in 1984 or 1985.
The only posters from its operational years, a Taiwanese film called Lost Lady (失足夫人) from 1982 and a Hong Kong exploitation film Horror Holiday (為愛拼生命) from 1983.
In spite of its extremely rural location, the cinema has suffered some degree of vandalism, with the entire front area covered in poor graffiti. That said, given the length of abandonment it's survived remarkably well and the fundamental structure is reasonably stable.
Stage curtains with advertising for Sarsparilla, which is a Taiwanese soft drink similar to coke.
The projectors have long since been removed, but the stands and electrical equipment still remain, and the entire floor is covered in film reels.
The austere concrete exterior
The ticket booth, still with the old advertising board.
Part 2 to follow in the next post.
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