加母子灣民宿

January 21st, 2016

The entrance to the old minsu, now totally stripped down to bare concrete and overgrown.

Jiāmǔzǐ Bay (加母子灣) is a beautifully remote and scenic stretch of coastline just north of Taitung City in Donghe, Taitung. It is also home to the gutted ruins of an abandoned mínsù (民宿) readily visible from just about anywhere along the bay. While cruising along the coastal highway on my first Taiwan bicycle tour in late 2013 I stopped two stops to take a closer look: once beneath the moody remnants of Typhoon Usagi and again on a sunny afternoon the following day.

Around the side of Jiamuzi Bay Bed &#x26; Breakfast 加母子灣民宿

Coming down from the highway at Jiamuzi Bay Bed &#x26; Breakfast 加母子灣民宿

Back then I wasn’t skilled in researching abandoned places in Taiwan and didn’t know anything about the place. More recently I dug through the archives, cleaned up the photos I shot back then, and figured out what it was likely called: Jiamuzi Bay Minsu (加母子灣民宿). Armed with the Chinese name (and more than two years of additional experience) I was able to find out a little more about it, which is the impetus for this post.

Nature oozing into a ground floor window.

Thanks to the collective memory of the internet I have been able to establish that this minsu shut down sometime prior to 2008. The details are unclear to me but my impression is that it wasn’t a legal business and the government eventually shut it down after public outcry. There is a common pattern of development along this stretch of coast: developers collude with corrupt government officials to secure permits and favorable environmental impact assessments, construction begins (and may even reach completion), and at some point activists and concerned citizens (many of them from local Indigenous groups) respond with protests, and eventually the government intervenes to shut things down. This is also the story with Nache Villa (那界行館), which is located along the highway next to the ruins featured in this post, as well as the infamous Miramar Resort Hotel (美麗灣渡假村) on the outskirts of Dulan (see also: here and here).

The rainy coast of Taitung from an abandoned hotel on the hill.

The building featured in this post is only one of several on site. I didn’t bother taking a closer look at any of the others at the time—mostly because they weren’t all that interesting or I could not gain access. Apart from the main building (which may or may not have had any actual guest rooms, it’s hard to tell) there were also several cabins down by the beach, a bar, and a roadside café by the name of Coffee Liáo (咖啡寮). The skeletal concrete structure in the photographs served as a sort of clubhouse with great views of the bay. The view remains as awesome as ever but this is no longer the sort of place you’re going to stop for coffee and waffles!

Although there isn’t much of anything to see from within the abandoned clubhouse (or whatever it was) this place does provide some insight into Taiwanese construction methods. Pretty much any modern building is a concrete shell with a whole bunch of extra stuff bolted on. Even the brick exterior of this building was just for show. The interior has been stripped since it was abandoned—perhaps in preparation for demolition that nobody has gotten around to yet.

Stranger than paradise, concrete edition.

Just about the only thing left of the place is the wiring.

Something crawled in here and died. What a way to go!

One thing I found quite interesting is that I was able to turn up some photos from when the minsu was still in business. Usually I have no way of knowing what a place looked like when it was still in use—but in this case you can see for yourself by browsing photos here, here, here, and here.

The first floor of the abandoned minzu on a nicer day.

Stripped to the bare concrete but you can’t take away that gorgeous view!

Creeping along the ground floor of the abandoned hotel.

The view from the abandoned hotel outside of Dulan.

I often say that Taiwan is paradise for urban exploration—and in this case I am being literal as well as figurative. Even so, I look forward to the day when Jiamuzi Bay is restored to a more natural state. It really is a beautiful place… and this shabby ruin is not magnificent enough to add much of anything to it.

Warning: this location is abandoned, hazardous, or otherwise neglected and may be unsafe and even dangerous! Exercise appropriate precautions when visiting.

警告：此處已廢棄或長期無人管理，可能存在潛在危險。造訪時請務必提高警覺，並做好相關安全防護措施。

Map

Themes

Urban Exploration in Taiwan (台灣城市探險)

Series: Taiwan Huandao 2013

An incomplete series of posts about my first bicycle tour around Taiwan in September and October 2013. The complete trip around the main island is known in Chinese as huándǎo (環島), literally “around the island”, and is typically conducted as a rite of passage for young people in Taiwan. It took me a full lunar month to complete, but I was not in any particular rush, and it can be done in under a week if you’re in a hurry.

Note: this series is far from complete and the quality of each entry varies as it was originally drafted in 2014. Since 2024 I have been revising each entry with and redoing all the photos.