The Hengke Road dependents village was once home to a community of dependents of ROC soldiers. It sat abandoned for nearly 20 years. Now it has been destroyed. Even though it was full of garbage and decay, it had a charm of its own that is captured in the photos of this blog. 

Background:
The Hengke Road Dependents Village was created sometime after the second world war. This village was built for KMT dependents after 1949 when they fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War. It included 30 households that were once inhabited at the time. 
It was abandoned in 2002 probably due to unlivable conditions in the poorly built houses. The land is owned by the department of defense. Since then it has been an eyesore for the community, and many have complained it has become a secret gathering place for youths to do drugs, etc. However from what I could see on my trip there in 2018, the place is mainly used as a private gardening area by local residents. In addition, the road next to it is very busy but because of the village is very narrow and can only accommodate one direction of traffic at a time. 
The village was razed to the ground in On October 9th, 2021, with no explanation. 

​Map:
Please see below. 

After searching through the historic buildings in Nangang I became aware of a certain mine in the mountains. This mine is only one of hundreds of abandoned coal mines in Taiwan, as the coal mining industry has essentially been shut down. From what I have found, coal mines have not been covered extensively in the blogsphere. Some notable English blogs on the subject are from the blog Over the City, featuring two blogs about coal mines, here and here. 
However, the best blog about coal mines is by Taiwanese Blogger Willy Chang, the Shepherd's Wolf.
我不會把這篇翻成中文因爲“放羊的狼”已經寫了一篇更完整的中文部落格。
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History of Coal Mining in Taiwan:
 
Before I show you my adventure, I’d like to give a background of the coal mining industry in Taiwan. If you aren’t interested, you can just skip this section.
 
Coal mining in Taiwan started during the Dutch rule, starting in Keelung and Tamsui. The Dutch started mines there, but didn’t have sufficient transportation infrastructure to move large amounts of coal. The Koxinga era didn’t see much coal mining.
 
After the Qing dynasty took back Taiwan following Koxinga and his son’s death, the government strictly banned mining of any kind in order to restrict the people from hiding in the mountains and starting rebellions. Despite this, coal was still mined and sold in on the black market in Taiwan.
During and after the Opium wars, many English and Americans scouted Taiwan for possible coal deposits. In 1864, despite the ban on coal mining, there was at least 4315 tons of coal exported out of Taiwan.
Pressure from western countries to open ports in Asia that had water and coal available to power steam ships forced the Qing government to finally allow legal coal mining in 1870.
 
After the ban was lifted, the size of coal mining operations was still very small. In 1874, due to Japanese influence, Liu Mingchuan convinced Beijing to allow advanced mining machinery in Taiwan, starting in Baodouzi, Keelung, and new mines were started under government control. During this time, many miners died due to poor and unsanitary working conditions and the fact that the government officials running the mines were inexperienced and did not run effective operations. During this time, infrastructure and railways were lacking in Taiwan, halting transportation of coal. By 1892 after the Sino-French war, government owned mines were closed and the industry became privatized. In 1895, Taiwan produced more than 10,000 tons of coal. By this time, Liu Mingchuan had constructed the Keelung-Xinxhu railway, helping alleviate the coal transportation problem.
 
In 1895 Japan took control of Taiwan and Penghu as a result of the Sino-Japanese war, and began to survey the forests and geography to maximize capitalist gains for the empire. Coal would be an important part in industrializing the Empire, as it was the major fuel source at the time. In 1896 Japan opened the coal mining industry to the public, and the next year the price of coal doubled, as demand increased. But as local know how and technology was lacking, imported coal from Japan was actually cheaper than producing it in Taiwan.
 
However in 1906 the coal industry in Taiwan gradually improved. New mining machinery moved to Tianliao, Keelung to support Japan’s Naval fleet. Sugar factories in southern Taiwan also needed a constant supply of coal.
 
During the First World War, the Empire of Japan became an important supplier of coal to western countries fighting in the war, and Taiwan’s coal exports gradually increased. In 1917-1918, Japan opened 194 new coal mines in Taiwan. They also built the Pingxi Railway which became the most productive site for coal mining, in its heyday producing 220,000 tons of coal per year.  (The Taiwan coal mine museum now lays here, along withHoutong cat village).  However, after World War I ended, the demand for coal declined, many mines closed, and there was widespread overproduction. But as industrialization continued in Taiwan, so did the demand for coal. To keep production going constantly, Japan provided subsidies to coal mines.
 
At the start of the second Sino-Japanese war, demand for coal rose dramatically, as did the price of coal. But also due to losses of manpower during the war, coal production saw a huge drop.
 
In 1945 Japan lost the war and Taiwan and Penghu were given back to China. Not long after this, the remaining government owned mines were transformed into the Taiwan mining company, but by then mining had all but stopped. However by 1949 after the KMT retreated to Taiwan, Taiwan became an important economic partner with America, and coal production began to soar to 1,650,000 tons of coal in 1951, mainly to fuel Taiwan’s coal power plants and other large industries. With economic support from the USA, new mines started opening. In 1960 Taiwan produced 4 million tons of coal.
 
Due to demand and the free market, coal mines gradually started closing and production went down, until by 1964 Taiwan produced only 2.8 million tons of coal. In 1969 Taiwan Power started using gas power plants which were cheaper than coal, lowering demand. By 1977 Taiwan had produced only 2 million tons of coal. During this time, Taiwan also improved safety regulations for coal mines, but accidents still kept happening, forcing the government to close quite a few mines. Here is a list of mining incidents in Taiwan.

The lone survivor of one1984 mining incident that killed 93 people survived by cannibalism and drinking pee over a period of 90 hours inside the mine. He later said that if he had to do it all over again, he would still have eaten his coworkers.

Local coal soon became more costly to mine than just importing it. In the year 2000, Sanxia’s Lifeng Mine shut down operations, and Taiwan’s mining company closed, and thus all coal mining in Taiwan effectively stopped.

History of Xinfeng Coal Mine:

According to Taiwan’s National Cultural Heritage Database Management System, Nangang district in Taipei only has 5 registered historical buildings. The most recent of these is the Que Family Ancestral House “闕家祖厝”, also known as Decheng Residence “德成居.” This house was added to Taiwan’s list of historical buildings in May of 2017, much to the chagrin of the houses’ current owner, causing a dispute between the family and the Ministry of Culture, which I discuss further in this post. 

History:
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This building, which comprises of a Sanheyuan (Three sided courtyard) and one side having a second storey watch tower, was built in 1924 by the Que Family who had emigrated from Quanzhou, Fujian, China. The house is built in Southern Min red brick style, with imported materials from Fujian. The roof was originally made of grass, then later replaced by modern materials. When first built, it stood in front of a small pond and was surrounded by cattle pasture, which was considered very good fengshui. After Academia Road was build in front of it, its fengshui was thus cut off, and has fallen into decay ever since (supposedly). It is an example of some of the best architecture and artistry of the Japanese era in Taiwan.

​Members of the Que family have been very influential in the leadership and development of the Nangang-Xizhi area, especially in coal mining and brick making. Que Shankeng (闕山坑) was the first democratically elected  leader of Nangang Town in 1946 during the ROC era. The Que family has many members that have since participated in politics. Currently there are huge numbers of Que family descendants in Nangang, Xizhi, and Neihu. Some elementary schools in Nangang used to have over 20 students in one class named Que. Now the family is very wealthy and has built two ancestor halls to worship their forebears, one in Xizhi being14 stories high.

Controversy and Drama over Que Family Ancestral House:

The current owner of the plot of land that the house stands on is not happy that his property has been changed into a historical building by the city government. Originally the owner claimed that his land was appraised at 500 million TWD, but now that the house has been classified as a historical building, it is only worth 50 million TWD. The family also claimed that the government is encroaching on the family’s livelihood by diminishing the value of the property, by protecting a “dilapidated house” that has ”no value,” even though they still live in the house!

However, another government official disagreed with the 50 million NTD assessment, stating that the current property with a historical building on it can still build a 7 or 8 storey apartment building, and the surrounding land is still very valuable. However, as you can see by the map below (which can be found for freeon the government's website), the land plots surrounding the house circle around like rings of an onion, so it might be hard to organize a build among remaining property owners, and I assume this has stopped them in the past. The family currently owns plots 176-2、177、178、178-3、179、179-1、180、180-1、181、185、and 186 in the map below.

On the border of Nangang and Xizhi there lies a row of 3 caves with 6 openings, on Minquan Street Sec. 1 (民權街一段) near the intersection with Datong Road (大同路).  It is a place that many never notice, but yet pass by every day. 

​Having passed by these tunnels many times, my interest was piqued. I had no idea what they were, or how far they went into the mountain. I thought that perhaps they could be abandoned military bunkers or tunnels. I have searched online, but I still cannot find anything about them. So I assume I am the first person to blog about them in English or Chinese.