Baiyun Police Station 白雲派出所

7/8/2022

Baiyun Police Station is an abandoned police station in Xizhi District of New Taipei that was first established during the Japanese era in Taiwan. Later it was used as an outpost as part of Taiwan's White Terror by KMT police who were looking for communist spies nearby, and ended up killing and imprisoned many innocent people. Currently it has been turned into a historical park for all to enjoy.

Background:
Baiyun Police Station was completed in 1920 by the Japanese. It was also known as Shisanfen Police Station, because the area there was also known as Shisanfen at the time. The police station was also added on to in 1939.
Two brothers, Chen Pen-chiang and Chen Tung-ho (陳通和), created an armed communist party holdout in the Luku village of Shiding District. They also organized a youth group consisting of underage villagers, however this group did not participate in any illicit activity.
In response, on Dec. 28th, 1952, about 10,000 police officers and ROC armed soldiers used Baiyun Police Station as a base to raid the village over the space of four months, blocking off roads and arresting everyone while trying to remove the communists.
Around 400 people in the surrounding areas were arrested, with 200 of those people being tortured and 35 killed. According to the Taipei Times: "Among the 200, 12 were not indicted or released for turning themselves in, while 98 were given prison sentences, 19 of whom were underage."
Due to the terrible injustice dealt to the village and the surrounding people, the Luku Incident Memorial was erected in the year 2000.
For more information on the incident, check out the articles written by the Taipei Times here and here. You can also check out the Wikipedia article in Chinese here.
After use by the KMT, the police station was abandoned in 1980 and the roof collapsed.
It was restored and the roof rebuilt in 2019. Currently it is a relatively unvisited historical site, but we did find a group of Instagrammers when we visited there.

Hours:
24/7

Price:
Free

How to get there:
By Car/Scooter: Travel south on Academia Sinica Road in Nangang, and then take Dongshi Street (東勢街) all the way up the mountain. The police station sits near border between Taipei City and New Taipei City, in between Forest Elementary School (森林小學) and Fuan Temple (福安宮) on Xiding Road (汐碇路).
By Bus: You can also take bus F903 to this location, get off at Forest Elementary School stop.
*note: if you get lost, look for the brown sign that says "白雲派出所" in Chinese on the side of the road.

Map:
Please see below:

Our Journey:

I have been to Baiyun Police Station once, but I got lost looking for it two other times. Even though the police station is only a 10 minute drive from where I live, I still managed to mix it up with another road, and trusted too much on my own knowledge of the area and not Google Maps. Luckily on the third try I found it, thanks to the brown sign on the side of the road.
I am not the first white person to discover this place, Taiwan Trails and Tales and Josh Ellis came here before me.

Here on Xiding Road you will notice a brown sign pointing to the site on a turn.

There are also some stone stairs leading to the top. What confused me is in Josh's post he also mentions stone stairs, but there are about 10 other places with identical stone stairs on this road.

Back in the early 1920s, a lot more people lived in the surrounding mountains, which is why a police station was built here. However after the Luku Incident, most people left. The building was abandoned in 1976, and collapsed as well as was defaced. However it was declared a historical monument in 2007, after which plans to restore it were made.
Originally there was also rooms over the north side of the building where the kitchen and bathtub are now.

When we went, there was also another group of hikers/instagrammers there.

First view of the police station. Originally there was also a wooden structure on the left.

The newly refurbished rood which was completed in 2019.

View from the outside.

May favorite thing here is this rainbow tile bathtub, used by many a stinky police officer in the past I am sure.

Close up view of the bathtub tile work.

View inside the main building.

Side bathroom.

Tiolet that has been cemented in.

The police station originally housed four people, and one had to sleep in the kitchen where the guns were stored. The building originally had three rooms: a library, a kitchen, and a bedroom.