Spectral Codex

Located on the flank of Yunlong Mountain (雲龍山) in eastern Keelung, Eighteen Arhats Cave (十八羅漢洞) was established in 1971 as an outgrowth of the nearby Shengji Temple (聖濟宮), and likely occupies a former World War 2 bunker once manned by Japanese troops.

The temple exterior on a gloomy afternoon in 2016.

A monument lost in the spaces between houses in Dongshi.

Yuanlin Credit Union (員林信用合作社) was a small town bank from Yuanlin, Taiwan, that went out of business at the turn of the century.

Ershui Public Hall (二水公會堂) is located in Ershui, a small town at the very southern edge of Changhua, on the border with both Yunlin (to the south) and Nantou (to the east).

A monument erected in 2012 in front of the former site of the POW camp at Karenko.

A slightly Art Deco style pervades the architecture of this small town theater.

The frontal view of the old dormitory sometime after it collapsed.

Pǔtuóshān White Temple (普陀山白衣道場) is one of the more unusual temples I have visited in Taiwan.

Located on the southwestern outskirts of Xinying, Tainan, this was a former transshipment station for salt produced at the solar evaporation ponds of the Qigu Saltworks (七股鹽場) and Budai Saltworks (布袋鹽場).

The No. 2 Pump House can be found next to the newly-built Western Coastal Expressway.

A newly-manufactured (and already weatherworn) torii stands in front of the reinstalled monument.

Originally established in February 1933 as Baiko-sha (拔子社) at the foot of Langtoushan (狼頭山), just north of present-day Fuyuan Elementary School in Ruisui, Hualien.

The ruins of a fishermen’s association on the edge of Fuxing Township.

Jīnchéng Theater (金城大戲院) is located in Mailiao, a remote coastal township in northwestern Yunlin, Taiwan.

The northern half of the Lincuo Anti-Airborne Position (林厝反空降陣地) runs through farmland and a hillside cemetery in Daya, picking up where the cluster of forts around Taichung Metropolitan Park (台中都會公園) leaves off.

Dàdù Plateau (大肚台地) is a geographic feature of great strategic importance to the defense of central Taiwan.

The hills at the northern margins of Tianmu in Taipei are home to several abandoned residences widely known in the urban exploration community in Taiwan.

Little Tianmu Villas (小天母別墅) was developed by Jili’an Construction Company (吉利安建設公司) in a joint venture with local landowner Zhan Yigong (詹益恭).

Linkou, now the fastest-growing suburban district in the greater Taipei area, was once home to more than 30 brick factories, the highest concentration in northern Taiwan.

Yingge is home to the dilapidated Nanmen Market Building (南門商場大樓), originally established next to the former Rongsheng Theater (榮聲戲院) around 1968.

The imposing ruin of Changle Theater (昌樂大戲院) towers over the somnolent streets of central Dashu, a suburban district of Kaohsiung sprawling along the right bank of the silty Gaoping River (高屏溪).