From banknotes to toilet paper, and what Nylon has to do with freedom of speech

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Taiwan has many old production plants and factories around the country - wine, paper, sugar, rice to name a few. Most of these have closed down, and many of the sites have been turned in a cultural incubator and creative centers. In the past, I've blogged about a rice granary and a distillery on the east coast. Today I want to take you to an ex paper factory on the east coast at Yilan.
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The Chung Hsing Cultural and Creative Park was formerly a paper making company established in 1935. However the site it self dates back to 1918 during the Japanese colony days. Back in those days, it produced a wide range of paper-based output ranging from banknotes paper to toilet paper. That's quite an impressive range, with products at both ends of the spectrum being equally important to everyone! Such wide is it's product range, that Chung Hsing's production output was the largest in south east Asia. (Source)
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Today, some of the buildings on site have been renovated and converted to exhibition centres and creative incubators. Others are still work in progress but rather than showing a derelict building, the Park has injected creativity in bringing history back to life. Let me take you for a walk around.
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MAIN ENTRANCE

We start from the Brain Storming Spot by the main entrance. I'm not sure what this two storey derelict building used to be and why it's called a Brain Stormig Spot. I peeked in from the other side and took a very blurry photo (see below), it didn't look inviting at all. There were a few traffic cones outside but it seems visitors can still enter the building. Not being an adventurous person, I didn't go up.

The bird cage outside makes an interesting contrast to the building and I'm sure if it was in the UK, people would be climbing all over and probably vandalising it. But not in Taiwan, you don't get much vandalism here. I'm thinking, perhaps this is installed to get activate visitors' creative cells before they enter the park.
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INFORMATION CENTER

This is the information centre. As you come through these big sliding doors, you're immediately faced with a massive slab of concrete wall. I don't think these concrete walls are part of the original structure as this building used to be a warehouse. Warehouse no. 6 was used to store the large type of wood such as pine and coniferous tree used to manufacture paper. You would need a wide open entrance to transport the goods in and out.
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The concrete walls were used to tell the history of the paper industry in the region.

During Japanese rule at the beginning of the 20th century, the region produced a lot of sugar. They tried without much success to use the sugar cane to make paper. Then in the decade before the war, they finally had a breakthrough using sulphur to produce economical and good quality paper. That's when the Chung Hsing Paper Factory was established in 1935. After the war, they were the main supplier of paper for the newspapers in Taiwan until the late 60's when importing paper was cheaper. The factory went downhill after that till it finally closed in 2001.

If you need somewhere to sit down to digest all this or simply to have a rest, there are plenty of seating areas around. I loved how they had these massive canopies creating an indoor/outdoor ambience, perfect to relax or mull over things
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GREEN HOUSE

A couple blocks next to the Information Center is the Green House. That's the building on the right below. It used to be warehouse no. 11 and was used to store sulphur and other chemicals used to make the paper. I walked past and didn't actually think much of this area. All I saw was a couple of old buildings and a little pond in between. A couple of kids were standing on the platform on the right and asked if I could take a photo for them. I was thinking, what an odd place to do a photo shoot, till I look through the lenses!!! The reflection of the buildings on both sides falling on the water, combined with the pebbles underneath it make quite a spectacular image. No wonder the Taiwanese love their Instagram!!
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NYLON CHENG SQUARE

Maybe you're wondering what fabric has to do with a paper factory. Nylon, isn't the fabric we know, it's the anglicised name of a political activist from the 80's called Cheng Nan Jung. As to how and why Nan Jung became Nylon beats me, and it's even more absurd that they continue to use this name today.

Taiwan was under martial law for over 38 years from 1949 to 1987. Cheng lived his entire life during this tyranny and was dedicated to fighting for democracy and freedom of speech. After the martial law was lifted, he proposed a new constitution for Taiwan. This didn't go down well with the government, and they issued an arrest warrant for him. Cheng locked himself in his office in protest till day 71 when the police tried to barge into his office to arrest him. Cheng was prepared for this, but not by giving himself up. He committed suicide by self immolation. Cheng's death set the catalyst for change resulting in Taiwan being one of the most democratic Asian countries today.

Cheng's father used to work at the paper factory when he was a child, and the family lived on site in the staff accommodation. This square is to commemorate Cheng's childhood here.
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THE FACTORY BUILDINGS

The most remarkable building on site is undoubtedly the chimney built in 1923. Visitors can see it from quite far away even before entering the site. The chimney is built next to the boiler room. Steam was the source of energy used back then. Fumes from the boilers would be channelled via the exhaust duct on the first floor into the chimney and then released into the air with the help of three fans. Not the most environmentally friendly way to do things, but don't forget this was over one hundred years ago. The top section of the chimney is missing and sadly I couldn't find any information on how tall it originally was.

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This building used to house two wood grinding machines. After the wood ground to pulp, they would be further refined to make high quality paper. 7.5 tonnes of pulp was produced here each day. If you don't know how heavy 7.5 tonnes is, it's nearly 548 bullion bars of gold, or to make it a bit easier, each original Volkswagen Beetle weighs one ton. The building itself isn't that interesting, but I like how they've kept the door, turning it into a piece of art. I've edited it into a black and white photo to match the age of the building.
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R CUBE

The final area I want to show you is tucked at the back of the site. These old factory buildings aren't open to the public. They're in a rather dire state, restoring them and making them safe is not going to be easy nor cheap. Based on what I've seen with the utilisation of the rest of the site, I reckon the authorities would struggle to find a purpose for these buildings.
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Not restoring them, doesn't make you just leave them in a sad state. As seen earlier on in the grinding building, you can create art with just one part of the building and make it blend in seamlessly. Using a stencil cutting concept, they created images of the working factory and, according to the official website, the six stages of making paper. The website didn't describe what the six stages of papermaking are. If you can work it out, perhaps you can let me know?

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Hope you enjoyed this piece of Taiwan history! Till next time.... take care!

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The entrance looks fascinating though great to see that they didn't make this place abandoned. Because I have seen after shutdown many factories turn into abandoned places.
Nice location to explore. I have visited a paper factory once which was located in my country Bangladesh. But now it's completely shut down and turned into an abandoned place.

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That's so sad, less and less paper is being used today, I think one day, it could disappear all together.

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That artwork on the dilapidated buildings look sooo good, makes the old buildings look like they're part of the artwork, stunning!
But let's hope not too many more buildings become abandoned postCovid19 with all the economies that have been battered!
Very interesting bit of history you shared, I've never seen a paper making factory around here.
Stay safe @livinguktaiwan.

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The covid solution is quite worrying, I'm guessing there will be more empty shops around, as if retail wasn't bad enough already.

Thank you for dropping by Liz

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It's interesting to learn about Nylon. I totally thought you were going to start ranting about the Taiwanese flag since flags are generally made from Nylon.

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What beautiful photographs, the green house is beautiful. Without a doubt a beautiful country! xD

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