Pingtung Sugar Factory 屏東糖廠

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The Pingtung Sugar Factory was one of the largest sugar factories in Taiwan and has now been turned into a museum for the public to visit. The area includes a dessert shop, many old sugar trains, as well as a museum of interesting artifacts from the Taiwan sugar industry heyday. It is definitely worth a visit on your next trip to Pingtung. 

Background:
The Pingtung Sugar Factory was completed in 1938 during the Japanese Era. At its height, it was processing 3,000 tons of sugar cane per day. After the fall of sugar production in the late 1900s due to the reduction of available land and the growing cost of producing sugar in Taiwan, the factory began to slow production. In 1997, the sugar factory stopped producing sugar, and in 2010 a museum was established on the premises. 
Because it is only open during business hours on weekdays, usually you will not see many people here. 
​
Hours:
8 AM to 12 noon; 1 PM to 4:30 PM
Monday to Friday

Price:
Free 

Tours and Activities in Pingtung:
There are many activities available in Pingtung, such as snorkeling, diving, SUPing, surfing, submarine riding, and river tracing. 
You can find more tours of Kenting on Klook here or KKday here. 

Where to stay:
Looking for a hotel? Find out where to stay in our Taiwan hotels guide or search for the best hotel deals in Taiwan here. We recommend booking through Agoda here, which provides the best quality selection of accommodation in Taiwan.
I have stayed at many hostels and hotels in Pingtung, and even almost bought a house here. Some places that I have stayed at and can recommend are Nanwan Kiki (book on Agoda here, Booking.com here), a B&B next to Nanwan Bay, Kenting's most popular Beach. There are also a few decent hotels near Kenting Street Night Market like Kenting Star Inn 888 (book on Agoda here, Klook here, or Booking.com here), or Kenting Dajianshan Hotel (book on Agoda here or Booking.com here). You will notice that none of these hotels are five star resorts (I do not come to Kenting to waste my time at a resort, but you can still search Agoda, Booking.com, or Klook here for those) but they are in my opinion the above have the best value for the money. ​

How to get there:
By Car/Scooter: Take Provincial Highway 1 south to the bottom of Taiwan until it becomes Pingtung City. Ahou Gate is on Zhonghua Road in the middle of the city. 
Looking for scooter rental in Pingtung? Click here or here to search for options.
If you are looking for car rentals, you can also search Qeeq here, Klook here, or  KKday here. You can also check out our car rental guide here.  
By Train: Ahou Gate is about a 10 minute walk from Pingtung TRA Station. You can book tickets to Kaohsiung via high speed rail (HSR)  on Klook here or KKDay here, or book tickets via the normal train (TRA)  on Klook here. You can book tickets to travel to Pingtung via inter-city bus on Klook here. 
By Bicycle: Cycling is the best way to enjoy Taiwan's landscapes if you have the time and energy. Looking for bicycle rentals in Taiwan? You can search on KKday here and search for tours on Klook here. You can also check out our Taiwan cycling guide here. 

Map:
Please see below:

Our Journey:

I have been to the Pingtung Sugar Factory once. It is kind of hard to get to because it is not open on weekends, only during business hours. It is also closed at noon for lunch hour. I think usually it is used as a school field trip location and usually there are not a lot of other people visiting. Still I would recommend going because the museum is really interesting and the candy shop is awesome. 

Mosquito heaven seen on the way to the sugar factory. 

Old trains seen on the road on the way to the sugar factory. 

Another view of old trains from the outside.

More old warehouses under construction. 

Front entrance to the museum. Here there is some scooter parking for the employees.

Originally we came at noon and were told to leave because they were having a lunch break. We came back at 1 PM and had to sign in. There is no parking here. You have to park across the street.

Across the street there is also another train on display. 

You can take selfies here.

Also you have to go to the ice cream shop.

Here they have drinks and ice cream.

And there is a seating area to eat.

Taitung makes the best Sarsaparilla soda, way better than Heisong. 

Also had a chocolate and vanilla ice cream bar.

More popsicles. 

Ice cream.

Fish pond. 

More photos from the ice cream shop above. 

The main entrance to the sugar factory is across the street from the ice cream shop.

Notice that it is only open on weekdays from 8 to 5, and closed at noon for one hour.

Map of the area. But you are not allowed to go anywhere, just stay around the museum. 

Employee motorcycle parking. 
They say the factory is no longer producing sugar but there are still a ton of people working here. I am not sure what they are doing. 

Front entrance to the museum. We were the only ones there and we had to wait a bit for the employees to get out of a meeting to open the door for us. 

Back entrance. 

There is also a public restroom here. 

Inside there was no A/C. I guess they usually keep it off. Anyway it was a hot summer day and it was burning in there. 

Different types of sugar on display.

Old piano. 

Waterfall painting. 

Old band instruments as part of the employee club.

Photos of the old factory. 

Sculpture. 

Photos from the old kindergarten here. All employee children had free kindergarten as a benefit.

The employees also had many sporting events and other activities. 

Artifacts on display. 

Main display room. 

Map of the sugar factory. 

Old sugar train. 

Photos of leaders of the factory dating back to the Japanese Era. 

View of the sugar railways in Pingtung. 

Another view of the factory. 

Soil map of Taiwan. 

Agricultural map of Pingtung. 

Another agricultural related map. 

Old photos of the area. They did not turn on the A/C for us. 

More old relics.

More sugar industry related photos. 

A tower of stamps. 

Old books and CKS.

Ancient technology.

More photos of the sugar industry. 

You can see more photos from the museum above. 

Outside the museum you can go check out the trains. 

Old rail cars.

This is a repair vehicle. 

Explanation of different rail cars.

Another row of cars.

More explanation of the rail cars.

Train engine. 

More rows of old trains. 

Old steam engine. 

View inside the steam engine. 

Passenger rail cars with murals painted on them.

View of the mural. 

Diesel locomotive, some of which are still in use today. 

Another view of the trains.

View looking back at the museum. 

Secure car for prisoners?

More photos of the trains above. 

Our back there are also some artifacts on display like this kiln. 

Old gears from the factory. 

Milling stones.

A bronze statue of Tori Nobuhei, a waterworks engineer who built the Erfengzun and Lilixizun drainage and anti-flood systems in Pingtung. 

Another stone tablet to commemorate another Japanese engineer.

A market to commemorate the old Jincun Farm. 

Dormitory area of the sugar factory. 

View of the entrance to the sugar factory.

Fish pond.

Another view of the dormitory area. I was expressly scolded for walking this far into the sugar factory. 

Another view of the offices that I should not have taken. 

View of the other side. 

At the other end of the sugar factory you will find Pingtung County Park.

There is a new playground here that you can check out. 

Also nearby is a baseball field. I think this was once part of their employee benefits program. 

Old dormitories. 

More old buildings around.

Old exercise center. 

Tennis courts. 

More photos of the area above. 

Don't forget there are many more activities in Pingtung such as such as snorkeling, diving, SUPing, surfing, submarine riding, and river tracing. 
You can find more tours of Kenting on Klook here or KKday here. 

You can check out our full guide to Pingtung here. 

You can also check out our full travel guide to Taiwan here. ​

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