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Shuinandong Smelter (13 stories) |
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（On March 14, 2007 formally announced as a Taipei County historic relic and name changed to Shuinandong Smelter）
Located above Liandong Bay on the Coastal Highway, this was the ore sorting and smelting plant for the Taiwan Metals Mining Corp. It is built into the hillside and old miners and local people usually call it “13 stories.” The process of smelting ore at Jinguashi was split into mining, sorting, smelting and refining. Shuinandong Smelter (13 stories) was an important facility in the gold making process.
Built in 1933, the Shuinandong Smelter (13 stories) now resembles another neglected Pompeii, bearing witness to the large scale of the mining industry in “gold mountain” in times gone by, an industry hoping for an opportunity to live again.
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The Residence of Mike Kikujirou |
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This is the bureau director’s house used by the second but last director of the Jinguashi Mining Bureau in the Japanese era, Mike Kikujirou (the last director was 戶田貢). It is a very typical Japanese-era detached single dwelling building. It is spacious and has front and back gardens. In previous days it had an excellent view from the front garden but now the view is blocked by a new Shiyu Middle School building.
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Gift Shop |
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The Gift Shop is next to the Museum of Gold and sells park-related souvenirs. Interested visitors are welcome to take a look around.
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Chitang Old Street |
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Walking down the steps outside Jinguashi police station, passing the old Japanese hospital, through Tongshan settlement and up the steps and you reach Cyuanji Temple. This was the most prosperous and busiest street in early Jinguashi. The black asphalt roofs are different heights mixed together. Walking on this street is like taking a trip back in time. In its heyday there were numerous shops here and it was known as “Little Ginza.” Today the street still has long-established general goods stores with old style cigarette display cases. The hand made herbal grass sticky rice sweets they sell should not be missed.
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Teapot Mountain |
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Approximately 580 meters high, Teapot Mountain is shaped like a handleless teapot, giving it the name “Handleless Teapot Mountain.” Looking from the Shumei or Cushih mountain direction, it also looks like a crouched lion ready to pounce, which also gives it the name “Lion Rock Mountain.” Teapot Mountain itself is an ore body. It is a breccia ore chimney, comprised mainly of silicified sandstone and shale.
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Jinguashi Shinto Shrine |
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(on March 14, 2007, this was officially declared a Taipei County historical site and given the official name Jinguashi Shinto Shrine)
The Jinguashi Shinto Shrine, also called the “Mountain God Shrine,” is dedicated to the three deities of “ôkuninushinomikoto, kaneyamahikonomikoto and sarutahikonomikoto. In 1933, after the Japan Mining Company took over the management of Jinguashi mine, it commemorated the event by building a Shinto shrine half way up the mountain below Siping lane. The original shrine included a main hall, prayer hall and pavilion for worshipers to wash their hands. There were also two walkways along the stairs, at either side of which were 3 torii (gate), 5 flag platforms and 1 bronze bull. During the Japanese era large-scale religious ceremonies and rituals were held here every year. Unfortunately, the buildings were damaged in the post-war period and today all that is left are 2 torii (gate), a few stone lanterns and the shrine’s original foundation, beams and pillars.
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Cyuanji Temple |
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Cyuanji Temple was built in 1896 and consecrated to what was the only golden-faced Guan Gong in Taiwan prior to Retrocession. The gold and bronze Guan Gong statue on the roof of the temple is the largest idol of that deity in the world, weighing more than 25 tons.
Each year during Dragon Boat Festival, Cyuanji Temple holds the distinctively local Green Grass ceremony. On such occasions, believers carry a divinity sedan chair in search of herbs stopping whenever the sedan chair’s crossbars point in the direction of sought-after herbs. In addition to various herbs, local residents also collect stones and towel gourds and the ritual takes a whole day. The collected medicinal herbs are taken back to the temple and on the next day washed and dried. On the third day, they are ground into powder using a stone pestle, and then spread to dry, which depending on the weather can take as long as 7 days. Finally, local residents rub the ground herb residue onto balls that are roughly 3cm in diameter, thereby completing the “100 Herb ball” ritual.
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Yin-yang Sea |
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As you travel along the coastal road you will see a strange scene - a bay where the sea is a mix of yellow and blue. This is Yin-yang Sea.
It was initially believed that the sea color was the result of pollution from Taiwan Metal Mining Corp’s smelting activities but, over 10 years after the company stopped its activities, Yin-yang Sea still exists. Scholars say that the Jinguashi geology has a large amount of pyrite that, after millions of years has formed Fe3+ which does no dissolve easily in water. This forms iron ion floating particles when it flows into the sea, resulting in the strange sight of the Yin-yang Sea.
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Gold Waterfall |
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The substantial Jinguashi rainfall seeps into the mine shafts through cracks in the surface rock, becoming acidulous water after interacting with the pyrite and energite underground and undergoing oxidation reduction. A natural wonder “Gold Waterfall” has formed where the terrain drops sharply. This is one of the sources of the Yin-yang Sea.
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Changren Tunnel No. 3 flue pipe |
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Crossing the old coal transport tunnel next to the car park behind Cyuanji Temple, you will see three huge flues criss-crossing the hill looking like giant snakes. These were used to take fumes away from the copper refinery to where there were no residents in the hills above. The flues are about two meters high and one and a half meters wide. They were abandoned when Taiwan Metals Mining Corp. closed down. Inside the flue a large quantity of secondary minerals have accumulated making to unsafe to enter. It is claimed they are the longest flues in the world. They are imposing and are one of the unique sights of Jinguashi.
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Keelung Mountain |
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Keelung Mountain is 588 meters high. In the Japanese era, the ridge was the boundary between Jinguashi and Jioufen. The mountain is a landmark in the area. The mountain’s shape resembles a woman lying on her side, and it is also called “big-bellied beauty mountain”. In the Japanese era, the north-south ridge was the border of mining rights for Jinguashi and Jioufen. Mining in the two areas created different scenes in the two areas. Climbing up the stone steps up the mountain, the beauty of Jinguashi and Jioufen can be fully taken in. From the top, you can also see Keelung Islet, Dadun Mountain, Badouzih, Fanzaiao and Bitoujiao.
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POW Memorial |
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The POW camp was on the site of today’s Tongshan Park and was established 1942-1945. The two rows of five miner’s huts became a POW camp when the Japanese had successes in the war in the autumn of 1942 in Southeast Asia and captured numerous Allied POWs. The POWs were forced to work in tunnel 6, digging earth, pushing wagons and extracting ore. Tunnel 6 was a copper and gold mine and temperatures underground were over 40C. Working conditions were extremely tough. Living conditions were very poor and the prisoners were malnourished. Many allied POWs died of disease or as a result of accidents in the mine, far away from home. The survivors were repatriated when the war ended.
One, Briton Jack Edwards, returned to Taiwan to help investigate war crimes and found the remnants of a war time order. The Japanese government saw that the war was going badly and planned to kill the prisoners in Taiwan. Although the order was not carried out it is chilling when contemplated today. There is a memorial stone on the site of the camp reminding people of the cruelty and horror of war.
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Miner's Canteen and Supply Store |
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The Miner’ Canteen next to the Environmental Education Center provides snacks, simple dishes and miners’ boxed meals. The supply store sells Gold Ecological Park-related souvenirs. Interested visitors are welcome to look around.
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Octagonal Pavilion relic |
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Octagonal Pavilion was a head shaving barbershop exclusively for Japanese people in the Japanese colonial era. It kept this function in the Taiwan Metals Mining Corp. era. The film “City of Sadness” also filmed some scenes here. The barber’s shop had three barber’s chairs, a large mirror and a three-inch thick red cypress work top. Every time many people would come to get their head shaved and a long queue would form. It was damaged by a typhoon and collapsed.
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