The Old Sugar Refinery in Sinying

If you are ever in Sinying in Tainan with nothing to do, the old sugar refinery there might be just the ticket for an hour or two, depending on how much breaking and entering you feel like doing (satellite view). Many's the time I've seen it from the train line and said to myself that I really have to get in there with a camera. By great good luck, a group of us had an hour to kill in Sinying today and we wound up there.

As a Taiwan amusement park it's quite sickly; not a concrete dinosaur in sight and the vendors were all closed. But there is a the germ of an awesome kitsch experience in place: a little sugar line train ride. Taiwan Sugar Corp lists this as a culture and leisure park. So stay tuned, I'm sure Totally Unique Souvenirs are on the way. The outdoor exhibits consist of a few old sugar line locomotives; there's a small exhibit room as well.

There's tons of wrecked and rusting metal to photograph as well as a slew of buildings dating from the thirties through the fifties. If you are into industrial ruins, want to film a post-apocalypse flick, or are searching for video sites for a death metal tune, this place is heaven.

On this side of the main road they store all the train cars.

Some working engines are present.

The complexity of the track network is amazing.

A memorial to the completion of the engineering in 1948.

The old administrative buildings and dorms are still around, though the housing units next to the site are falling apart and seem to be slated for demolition. Be sure to walk toward the large engine house in view across the main road from the toy train and then walk along the paved roads to view all the old buildings, processing tanks, and administrative structures for the full experience.
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