潮州鎮私立明德中學

April 24th, 2024

The main entrance to an abandoned high school in Chaozhou.

Not much is known about the history of Mingde Private High School (私立明德中學) in Chaozhou except that it was forced to halt admissions in 2002 by the Ministry of Education after years of declining enrollment and chronic mismanagement. At that time there were still more than 100 students attending class and a staff of perhaps two dozen teachers. The school had taken to renting out its athletic field to a driving school for revenue and rival factions of the board feuded openly in the press. Eventually the school was completely dissolved and put up for auction, leaving the campus abandoned to the elements by the late 2000s.

The school emblem can be seen over the main entrance along with the faint outline of the characters in its name on either side.

Without any barrier to entry the school became a target for thieves and vandals. It also became popular with the burgeoning urban exploration scene of the early 2010s. Garish photos of dusty, discarded props from anatomy class became a fixture of the Flickr pages and Facebook groups of the time. I made my own pilgrimage to the site in 2018 and shot a few photos, though by now the entire building had been gutted and not much of interest remained.

Ascending to the upper levels of the gutted school building.

A friendly greeting in the stairwell: “hello” (哈囉).

Years of exposure have eroded this classroom.

The money shot: a lecture hall with some educational props laying around.

Decaying remains of yet another classroom.

Discarded wooden chairs on the mezzanine. This view is looking inward across the campus.

A parting glance across the empty campus.

The entire site was demolished and cleared sometime in the early 2020s. Nowadays the only mention of the school you’ll find in the news pertains to land disputes arising from a rezoning by the new owner. Nothing remains of this notorious ruin except an empty lot in the southern suburbs of Chaozhou.

Note: this location has vanished. Any information presented here is only for reference.

提醒：此地點已消失，本文僅供參考用途。

Map

Recorded On

December 5th, 2018

Themes

Urban Exploration in Taiwan (台灣城市探險)
Education History in Taiwan (臺灣教育史)

Series: Southern Taiwan Ride 2018

Dispatches from a weeklong bicycle trip around southern Taiwan in late 2018. I began the ride in Tainan, crossed into Qishan, headed into the mountainous interior as far as Liugui, did a loop through Pingtung, and finished around Zuoying, visiting the sites of nearly 25 old movie theaters. Many entries remain to be added; this series is far from over.