ABC Wednesday: P is for Poorly Preserved

Jinguashi (金瓜石) is a old gold mining town in the northeastern part of Taiwan.  It is not far from Taipei.  The gold was discovered in 1890.  After 1895 Japanese occupation of Taiwan, the mine was further developed.

The mining company has its up and down and went through two World War and was eventually returned to Taiwan government at the end of World War II.  With the exhaustion of mineral deposit, it eventually ceased operation in 1987.  However, some international mining concerns believe that the site is still containing enough mineral deposits and can be extracted with modern technology.

The building of the de-functioned mining company was painted in this very peculiar blue and make it very photogenic.

Much of the old village and some of the factory is now tourist attraction.  However,  many area are off limit to ordinary tourist.  The toxic material that was used for the mineral extraction was too toxic to be cleared away.

Here I only showed the ruin of one of the buildings.  The whole building complex occupied half of the mountain slop with 13 rows of buildings.  From a distance, it almost looks like a fort.

Over one thousand of British prisoner-of-war were detained on this sit and used as hard labor for the mining operation during the WWII.

The rain water seeps into the mine shafts then resurfaces through the cracks in the surface rock.  It creates this natural wonder of "Gold Waterfall".

The water continues in the mountain stream and empty into the Pacific Ocean.  The mineral in the water interacts with the sea water and turns into yellow color in contrast to the crystal blue water in the surrounding sea.  It is another natural wonder that is called "Yin-yang sea", which I have shown here.

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