All solo visits.
As you know I've put my Mandarin skills to good use, and I've found an absolute treasure trove of sites. One of them was a full list of disused cinemas, which as you know Taiwan is as synonymous with as the UK and Ireland are with asylums. Many of them were total crap and either long-demolished or derps of no photographic value. Those that appeared to be in reasonable condition from the outside I added to my list to be done, but to be honest I don't know how good they are until I step inside one. There were other sites, including a mental hospital, which closed in October 2022. It was right on my doorstep, in the next city down from Taizhong, Zhanghua. Thinking I was onto a total winner, doing something I never thought I'd see in Taiwan, I got there to find that it had been totally sabotaged and stripped in preparation for demolition, which meant it was only worthy of five iPhone photos. What a disappointment.
Other sites are, to my knowledge, total unknowns, which I don't know if they've been done before or not, so will be looked at when time allows. I will certainly dedicate my time to doing them over long weekends over the course of 2023. But this is a blessing in a way, because whereas a UK site would have been done and extensively covered within weeks, the nature of sites over here mean that you'd be making giant leaps into the unknown which makes for a truly thrilling experience.
First jaunt, April 2023
This one was a mixed bag. The aim was to do a recon mission on three sites, and complete two others. First of all was a vocational high school, which I will look at again in the future. The problem is whilst it is listed as a disused site, two parts of it have been repurposed and put into use as a health clinic, leaving the central block an unknown. Whilst there was no security on site, it was well covered by active CCTV and spotlights which made it unclear if the former school building was fully disused or not. Not wanting to be arrested for attempted burglary, I left it. This was the same for yet another one of Taiwan's disused universities (which for the record are easily as big as any UK asylum, and are closing at an alarming rate), for which the buildings again appeared to be out of use, but there were still cars and buses parked on site which meant which buildings were repurposed and which were fully disused was very hard to tell.
Then there was target #3: a disused cinema in a backwater town of Taiwan. From the outside it looked incredibly enticing, and there were metal shutters from which I could peep through the letterbox inside to see the interior. Access appeared fairly sealed, except for going round the back of the auditorium. The problem? First of all the front exits were completely locked and covered with tarpaulin, and the one way in had an old lady sat outside on her chair, staring at her phone. Even when I returned later in the evening, there she was, and I was in her line of sight! It was already a dodgy entry, when the inner courtyard used for entry was used to park cars, and I'd have to make a hell of a noise climbing over metal fencing, even if it was down a hidden alleyway. Sometimes sites don't need security... a neighbourhood watchman is equally effective!
Site #4 was a third recon mission. Another enormous disused university, with the full campus disused. Access to the site is easy enough, and there is a solitary guard at the front who I assume is only there for cars coming in and out of the front gate, and never leaves his cabin. I heard reports that pikeys are starting to attack the place, so in the near future you will see a report from me before it is too late.
And so here you have site #5: the only success, and a site I had no real knowledge of. It had been done before and shared on Facebook, but because sites are not named, you'd never know where it was unless you already knew.
Kangle cinema, Xinying/康樂戲院 新營
The only information I can find on this is from business records, which lists that it opened on 3rd June 1967 before it closed after a relatively short time, on 28th August 1997, although calendars list the final date as 2 days later. Since then it has lain disused in a nondescript street in Xinying, and is listed for demolition. That's all I know about it.
Access was easy enough. I spotted a way in as soon as I was outside, and so I got inside without hesitation and had no idea what I was going to see. I had no knowledge of the interior or whether anything was left, but it was certainly worth seeing. It was split into two screens, with the main cinema downstairs and a smaller one downstairs. Upstairs was left exactly as it was closed, with the projectors and seating still in place.
The xenon-arc projectors here are more modern designs, unlike many of the projectors I've shown in other, longer-disused cinemas.
It wasn't Taiwan's best-looking disused cinema, sure, but I could appreciate the small auditorium for what it offered. Downstairs sadly had been completely stripped and I assume it was used for storage for a while after it closed.
Ticket booth, seen from inside
Heading behind the silver screen, there was a single old-fashioned fusebox projector, which you will have seen from other cinemas that I've done.
An empty projection room.
Stay tuned for part 2, which was a far more successful venture.
As you know I've put my Mandarin skills to good use, and I've found an absolute treasure trove of sites. One of them was a full list of disused cinemas, which as you know Taiwan is as synonymous with as the UK and Ireland are with asylums. Many of them were total crap and either long-demolished or derps of no photographic value. Those that appeared to be in reasonable condition from the outside I added to my list to be done, but to be honest I don't know how good they are until I step inside one. There were other sites, including a mental hospital, which closed in October 2022. It was right on my doorstep, in the next city down from Taizhong, Zhanghua. Thinking I was onto a total winner, doing something I never thought I'd see in Taiwan, I got there to find that it had been totally sabotaged and stripped in preparation for demolition, which meant it was only worthy of five iPhone photos. What a disappointment.
Other sites are, to my knowledge, total unknowns, which I don't know if they've been done before or not, so will be looked at when time allows. I will certainly dedicate my time to doing them over long weekends over the course of 2023. But this is a blessing in a way, because whereas a UK site would have been done and extensively covered within weeks, the nature of sites over here mean that you'd be making giant leaps into the unknown which makes for a truly thrilling experience.
First jaunt, April 2023
This one was a mixed bag. The aim was to do a recon mission on three sites, and complete two others. First of all was a vocational high school, which I will look at again in the future. The problem is whilst it is listed as a disused site, two parts of it have been repurposed and put into use as a health clinic, leaving the central block an unknown. Whilst there was no security on site, it was well covered by active CCTV and spotlights which made it unclear if the former school building was fully disused or not. Not wanting to be arrested for attempted burglary, I left it. This was the same for yet another one of Taiwan's disused universities (which for the record are easily as big as any UK asylum, and are closing at an alarming rate), for which the buildings again appeared to be out of use, but there were still cars and buses parked on site which meant which buildings were repurposed and which were fully disused was very hard to tell.
Then there was target #3: a disused cinema in a backwater town of Taiwan. From the outside it looked incredibly enticing, and there were metal shutters from which I could peep through the letterbox inside to see the interior. Access appeared fairly sealed, except for going round the back of the auditorium. The problem? First of all the front exits were completely locked and covered with tarpaulin, and the one way in had an old lady sat outside on her chair, staring at her phone. Even when I returned later in the evening, there she was, and I was in her line of sight! It was already a dodgy entry, when the inner courtyard used for entry was used to park cars, and I'd have to make a hell of a noise climbing over metal fencing, even if it was down a hidden alleyway. Sometimes sites don't need security... a neighbourhood watchman is equally effective!
Site #4 was a third recon mission. Another enormous disused university, with the full campus disused. Access to the site is easy enough, and there is a solitary guard at the front who I assume is only there for cars coming in and out of the front gate, and never leaves his cabin. I heard reports that pikeys are starting to attack the place, so in the near future you will see a report from me before it is too late.
And so here you have site #5: the only success, and a site I had no real knowledge of. It had been done before and shared on Facebook, but because sites are not named, you'd never know where it was unless you already knew.
Kangle cinema, Xinying/康樂戲院 新營
The only information I can find on this is from business records, which lists that it opened on 3rd June 1967 before it closed after a relatively short time, on 28th August 1997, although calendars list the final date as 2 days later. Since then it has lain disused in a nondescript street in Xinying, and is listed for demolition. That's all I know about it.
Access was easy enough. I spotted a way in as soon as I was outside, and so I got inside without hesitation and had no idea what I was going to see. I had no knowledge of the interior or whether anything was left, but it was certainly worth seeing. It was split into two screens, with the main cinema downstairs and a smaller one downstairs. Upstairs was left exactly as it was closed, with the projectors and seating still in place.
It wasn't Taiwan's best-looking disused cinema, sure, but I could appreciate the small auditorium for what it offered. Downstairs sadly had been completely stripped and I assume it was used for storage for a while after it closed.
Ticket booth, seen from inside
Heading behind the silver screen, there was a single old-fashioned fusebox projector, which you will have seen from other cinemas that I've done.
An empty projection room.
Stay tuned for part 2, which was a far more successful venture.
