Lingjiao Waterfall (嶺腳瀑布)

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Lingjiao Waterfall (嶺腳瀑布) is one of the many beautiful waterfalls found within New Taipei City's mountainous Pingxi District. It's not the highest, the widest or the most visited of them all but it is probably one of the best if you plan on going for a swim.

The waterfall is around 12-13 meters high and the flow of water you are likely to see will vary each time you visit. If you're lucky you may see one very large and wide waterfall but if there hasn't been a lot of rain you may see several smaller falls. I've seen photos where the two falls combine together to make a single set of falls but I think that when they are separated into two that it is actually more beautiful! 

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The waterfall finds its source from the Keelung River (基隆河) which flows through the mountains of Pingxi all the way down into Taipei and is the same river that forms the much more well-known Shifen Waterfall downstream. The water from the river is an emerald green and a bit warmer than normal mountain springs making it great for swimming, river tracing and kayaking in the area near the falls.

The water in the pool at the base of the falls is around 9-10 meters deep which makes it quite a deep pool for a waterfall in this area. If you are going to the waterfall for a swim, you need to make sure that you are a good swimmer - The deep water is what makes this waterfall fun though because it makes jumping from the top an activity that (I don't recommend) is completely awesome!

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There are two trails to take you to the waterfall, one trail takes you down to the base while the other takes you to the top where people do their cliff jumping. There are several different places to jump from with highest being around 12 meters. Standing at the top and looking down can be a bit scary but once you take the jump you'll want to do it again and again.

This is where I have to caution you though - jumping is dangerous and not really permitted. If you have done this kind of stuff before and you're really comfortable with cliff-diving and swimming you will enjoy this. If not you will have to be really careful - On my visit to the waterfall a friend jumped into the water from the highest cliff but entered the water ass-first. A few days later her legs and back side were a giant purple bruise. It was funny but I also felt really bad for her.

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Jumping! 

Coincidentally as I'm writing this blog a friend posted a news link on a photo I shared of myself jumping that reported an 18 year old boy died while jumping. The article noted that he was jumping too close to the actual waterfall and not from the jumping cliffs that the majority of people use. Ultimately the strong current and whirlpools created by the waterfall hitting the water below didn't allow him to resurface in time and he drowned which is extremely unfortunate. 

As far as I know, the waterfall was shut down by the police for some time so that they could conduct their investigation. I'm not really sure if it is opened back up as of yet. 

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It seems like the waterfall was more popular years back and someone tried to develop it as a tourist attraction. Next to the pool of water there is a concrete mound with holes, stairs, rooms and even a nude photo of a girl from the 70's or 80's. The mound could be best described as a Hobbit hole or maybe even Yoda's house. It is extremely strange but also quite indicative of how Taiwan poured concrete all over its scenic tourist spots several decades ago in an attempt to attract visitors and seem modern. The mound right now isn't actually in very good shape and it was never really maintained so it looks out of place and there is also a lot of trees and shrubs growing all over it. 

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Recently there have been some blog posts from bloggers like Follow Xiaofei who have reintroduced the waterfall to a new crowd of people and I have seen social media posts from friends throughout the summer, but for the most part the waterfall isn't really that busy. I went during the week with a small group of friends and we had the entire waterfall and pool to ourselves which was amazing! 

Personally I'm conflicted as to whether this waterfall being popular is a good thing or not. I fear that if too many people know about it more accidents will happen. If this is the case, the government will definitely overreact and the waterfall might be shut down completely for recreational activity. On the other hand I feel like this is yet another of Taiwan's beautiful and under appreciated scenic spots so it should be promoted.

All I can say is that if you plan on visiting and you plan on swimming and/or jumping please exercise caution, don't get hurt and don't ruin it for everyone else!

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Getting to the waterfall is easy - You can travel by car or scooter and park near Lingjiao Train Station (嶺腳車站) just simply take the Pingxi Rail line to Lingjiao Station and walk for five minutes. There are markers along the road that show how to get to the waterfall so it is quite easy to find.

If you're in the Pingxi area and are sick of seeing the sky lanterns pollute the beautiful scenery then why not visit a waterfall or two? There are a multitude to choose from that range from the Sandiaoling hiking trail to the Shifen Waterfall. If you plan on swimming there are a lot of choices and I suggest you checkout Follow Xiaofei or Taiwan Waterfalls blogs to find the waterfall that fits your schedule! No matter what you choose, be safe and exercise caution!

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Photos)

Sun Yat Sen Memorial House (逸仙公園)

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The Taipei Train Station is the largest transportation hub in Taiwan and from the station you have the option of taking trains, the high speed rail, the Taipei MRT, intercity busses and city buses - You can even grab a YouBike and ride a bicycle around the city!

The area is about to get a lot more convenient in the near future with the completion of the expansion of the Taipei Train Station and the Airport Express project that will offer the same type of high speed express trains that are common in many large metropolitan areas around the world but also MRT access all the way to Taoyuan!

The area around the station is popular with backpackers for its convenience with several hostels available as well as for shopping with the newly opened Q-Square mall (京站), an electronics mall, the Mitsukoshi department store and (I have to mention) Bo-Ai Road (博愛路) which is affectionately known by photographers as "camera street".

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Tourism-wise, the area around the station only has a few sites that would be of interest to travellers which include the historic Beimen Gate (北門), the 228 Peace Memorial Park (二二八和平公園), Dihua Street (迪化街) and the Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕碼頭). There is however a little known piece of ROC history situated within a park near the station that doesn't attract a lot of tourists and isn't really found in many guide books, but if you're stuck in the train station waiting for a train you might want to take a walk over and check it out.

The Sun Yat Sen Memorial House (國父史蹟紀念館) not to be confused with the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館) is a small Japanese-era wooden house situated within Yixian Park (逸仙公園) that is dedicated to the founding father of the Republic of China and is the location where the man, who is known as the "Founder of the Nation" (國父) stayed for a short time during one of his visits to Taiwan shortly after the 1911 Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命) which overthrew the Qing Dynasty.

Sun Yat Sen (孫中山) is an extremely important figure in modern Chinese history and was the founding father of the Republic of China. Strangely, he is also important to the so-called communist regime in the People's Republic of China which memorializes him as a revolutionary who initiated regime change and allowed for further revolution within China proper.

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No matter what your politics are, Sun was one of the most important figures of the 20th century and to this day continues to be one of the few figures revered on both sides of the Taiwan strait. In life Sun was a physician, politician, revolutionary and a writer and was one of the great thinkers of the time and his political philosophy of the "Three Principles of the People" (三民主義) is one that helped modernize Asia with regard to political thought.

Sun can be a bit of a confusing figure to westerners due to the fact that he went by so many names. He was born Sun Wen (孫文) and also went by Sun Deming (孫德明) which later became Sun Yat Sen (孫逸仙) while he studied in Hong Kong and then his most popular name Sun Zhongshan (孫中山) which was "Nakayama" and a product of his time spent in Japan.

If you can keep his names straight you're likely to notice that city districts, streets, schools and parks all over Taiwan go by a few of his names and the park for which this memorial house is situated in is no different as it is named "Yixian Park" (逸仙公園) which is the Mandarin pronunciation of the Cantonese "Yat Sen".

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The park is a beautiful Japanese-style garden and is very simple in nature and actually quite a relaxing place to visit in the middle of the concrete jungle of Taipei. There is a small pond filled with Koi fish, tree-covered benches and a pavilion with a plaque in remembrance of Sun.

The house in the middle of the park is where Sun stayed and was a former Japanese hotel named Ume Yashiki (梅屋敷) or "Plum House" in English. The traditional wooden Japanese-style house was built in 1900 while Taiwan was still under the control of the Japanese empire.

Sun made a stop in Taiwan in 1913 for a few days and stayed in the hotel (which was considered to be quite extravagant for the time) before heading to Japan. By that time the revolution to overthrow the Qing Dynasty was complete but the road to democracy in China hit a bump in the road when Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) railroaded the government, instituted a system of warlords and dedicated to proclaim himself emperor which led to decades of strife and the eventual Chinese Civil War. Sun's visit to Taipei was a part of his efforts to start a second revolution (第二革命) which was meant to overthrow Yuan but ultimately failed.

Despite only staying in the hotel for a few days, the hotel was appropriated by the Chinese Nationalists when they retreated to Taiwan and ultimately became a memorial site for the man who they considered to the be founder of the nation. The park and hotel today are not in the original location as it had to be moved to make way for the expansion of the underground Taiwan rail system which fed into the nearby Taipei station. In 1983 the park was closed and moved 50 meters away from the original location reopening to the public in 1987.

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Now that you know the history I'm going to speak plainly - You might notice that there are only photos of the park and the Plum House from the outside. I didn't actually even bother stepping into the house. Why you might ask? There are strict rules that you are not allowed to take photos in the house. I don't particularly understand why such rules are in place in this area, it makes absolutely no sense and is probably one of the factors why the park is relatively unknown. It's actually quite unfortunate when you consider that the park is such a nice little space within the city and has the potential to be a nice little tourist attraction. 

When a tourist spot has arbitrary "No Photo" signs all over the place and guards standing around to enforce it, it just makes me want to leave. I'm not sure if others feel the same as I do about this kind of thing, but my primary interest is photography and helping to promote Taiwan. I feel like I'd like to recommend this beautiful park to people but this really left me with a bad taste in my mouth! The government spends a considerable amount of money on the upkeep of the park as well as having staff there to give information to guests and guided tours. If they are investing that money they should probably do a much better job promoting it. 

There isn't much English content available online about this place, so if you'd like a more balanced (non-photographer) opinion about the park, be sure to check out Taiwan Explorer's blog post from a few years back: Sun Yat Sen Memorial House and Yixian park.

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If you'd like to visit the Sun Yat Sen Memorial House and Yixian Park simply walk out of the East exit of Taipei Main Station and walk for 2-3 minutes down the Civic Boulevard (市民大道). Entrance to the park is free and it is open between 9-5 each week from Tuesday - Saturday (Closed on Mondays). If you visit enjoy the history and take a photo inside the house as a form of tourist protest!

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)

Hsinhsing Theatre (新興老戲院)

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I went on an urban exploration day trip with my friend and fellow photographer/blogger Alexander Synaptic last week. The resulting trip will likely end up producing more than a few blogs and quite a few photos between us as we visited several locations and enjoyed a beautiful day in Hsinchu. 

Near the end of the day we decided to stop in the small village of Hsinpu (新埔), known mostly for Yimin Temple (義民廟) and its Hakka culture and cuisine. I stopped at Yimin Temple to ask some questions for my Pigs of God blog and also showed Alexander around a bit as it was his first visit to the temple which is extremely important to the Hakka people of Taiwan. 

After visiting the temple we decided to drive into the downtown area of the village on our way back to Taoyuan and do a bit of a photo walk to see what cool things could find as well as going for some of the food that Hsinpu is so famous for.

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Alexander had wanted to visit Hsinpu for a while because he had heard about an old abandoned theatre called the "Hsinpu Theatre" (新埔戲院) but we were saddened to find out when we arrived that it had been recently demolished and replaced by an ugly high-rise apartment building. 

The street that we were on however was once referred to as "entertainment street" which meant that there was probably some kind of 'entertainment' elsewhere on the street at some point.

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Where the screen would have been

A quick walk down the street brought us to a suspicious-looking building that ended up also being an abandoned theatre. Despite not finding our original target we found something that neither of us had known about and ended up being pretty much the kind of thing we were looking for. 

While there isn't much information available online about this abandoned building, we found out that it was named Hsinhsing Theatre (新興戲院). Thanks to the assistance of public records, we also found out that the theatre, which is more or less empty today, was originally registered as a business in 1956 and ultimately went out of business sixty-one years later at the turn of the century. 

When the theatre went out of business, the building was then used as a make-shift karaoke bar for a period of time but that seems to have been a short-lived business venture and today the beautiful old theatre sits abandoned and is used by neighbours as a place to keep their dogs tied up and to store a bunch of garbage. 

If you want to know more about the theatre you're going to have to visit Alexander's well-written and well-researched blog post about it - He's a master of urban exploration and this kind of thing is really his domain. I'm just here to share my photos from the theatre here. Enjoy! 

Xinxing Theater 新興戲院

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While the theatre wasn't a secret, it wasn't really on the radar of Urban Explorers before Alexander and I posted blogs and photos about it online. Since then the theatre has been visited quite a few times by other urban explorers which gives me a bit of a reason to update this post with not only newer photos, but some additional information and a bit of a rant. 

When Alexander and I first visited the theatre, the biggest problem was the dogs which were tied up on the first floor - and who didn't really appreciate us invading their space. On my second visit to the theatre however the dogs weren't around, but there was something else that bothered me. 

One of the mottos that Urban Explorers live by is this - "Take nothing by pictures, leave nothing but footprints". This simple phrase describes the goal of urban exploration, which brings explorers to abandoned buildings, factories, hospitals, schools, etc. so that they can "explore, discover and photograph buildings and constructions created by human beings in the forgotten spaces of civilization." (link) 

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Alexander and I knew that there was a projection room on the second floor of this building. We wanted to get inside of it to see what secrets we could find. There was however a deadbolt on the door, so following the rules of urban exploration, we just tried to peek in through one of the windows. 

After we posted the blogs and photos however, some other people, who apparently don't bother with the rules decided to cut the deadbolt and open the door to the projection room. Now that the projection room was open, I decided to go in and see and was quite surprised to find that there was still some stuff left, which included parts of the old projectors, chemicals and old film. 

It was nice to be able to gain access to the room, but it also bothered me that someone would break down the door. The other thing that bothered me was that the so-called "Urban Explorers" who visited after Alexander and I also left a bunch of garbage. I noticed that there were 35mm film-containers and packages on the ground, a broken camera tripod, etc. 

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If the point is just to take photos and document the theatre why leave so much garbage? Why ruin this exploration for others? I realize that not everybody follows the same standards, but its the people who do these things that ruin it for others. The theatre may be easily accessible now, but sooner or later the neighbours might just get tired of people showing up and eventually just start calling the police. Thats unfortunate. If you want to visit a place like this and want to try your hand at urban exploration, try to be responsible.  

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Gallery ／Flickr (High Res Shots)