Nanshan Coal Mine

Nanshan Coal Mine worked the hills of Danankeng (大南坑) in southern Beipu, mining the Nanzhuang Formation (南莊層) from 1952 until it closed in 1982. The same ground held silica sand of unusually high quality, and the site was prospected in the 1950s to feed the burgeoning Hsinchu glass industry. Open-pit sand quarrying outlasted the coal seams but has since ceased. Little trace of the coal mine itself survives, though brick ruins of its buildings still stand along the road a short way to the south.