Keelung Zhongshan Pedestrian Bridge

This 130 meter-long pedestrian bridge snakes across the railway line and terminates at the Mingde Shopping Center. Built in 1976 to replace Gaosha Bridge (高砂橋), an earlier bridge over the railway, it runs the length of Zhongshan Bridge (基隆中山陸橋), also known as the Keelung Train Station Bridge (基隆火車站陸橋).

It was famously featured in the opening sequence¹ of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波), in which actress Shu Qi (舒淇) dreamily walks the length of the bridge, occasionally glancing over her shoulder, to the soundtrack of Lim Giong’s A Pure Person. This scene has become so iconic in Taiwanese culture, particularly with millennials, that the bridge is also referred to simply as Shu Qi Bridge (舒淇橋).

Part of the bridge dramatically collapsed in 2013. Even the repair efforts were newsworthy as distinctive syringes were used to inject epoxy into the substructure. As of 2019 the bridge was slated for demolition, but it seems plans were delayed or changed, and as of 2024 the city appears to be fixing it up again.

Footnotes

1. Watch the introductory sequence on YouTube. ↩