Keelung

Keelung (基隆) is Taiwan’s northern port city. It has a long, checkered history stretching back to Spanish colonization of Heping Island (和平島) in the 1620s, through the Sino-French War of 1884—1885, and continuing into the Japanese colonial era when the city developed into a major coal mining and shipping hub. Big attractions include Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市), picturesque Keelung Islet, and a remarkable concentration of historic fortifications built by successive rulers to defend this strategic harbor.

Keelung is also a dark paradise for urban explorers. Abandoned theaters, derelict coal mines, and crumbling industrial sites are scattered across the hillsides, most famously the skeletal ruins of the Agenna Shipyard. The city preserves Taiwan’s oldest railway tunnel, the Qing dynasty era Liu Mingchuan Tunnel, completed in 1890, along with numerous Shinto shrine remnants and Japanese colonial buildings in various states of decay.