Chiayi Old Prison
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The only preserved prison from the Japanese colonial era in Taiwan and now a major tourist attraction in Chiayi City. There’s no English (unless you specially arrange a tour) but you can still get a feel for the atmosphere of the place. Worth a look.
More background info: The prison was built between 1919 and 1922. It features three cell blocks radiating out from a central observation point where the three wings meet. It was designed to hold 300 male prisoners as well as 30 female prisoners in a separate block. There were workshops and communal wash facilities, medical rooms, a visiting room and of course an administrative tract – all hidden behind an imposing main gatehouse and barbed-wire crowned concrete outer walls.
Part of the prison was constructed of wood – namely from Alishan cypress trees (see Chiayi > Alishan Forest Railway). Today it is the only such prison building complex still in existence in Taiwan.
During its first decade the prison was repeatedly damaged in a series of earthquakes and therefore subsequently reinforcement work was undertaken, in large part by the prisoners themselves.
The prison continued to be in operation after WWII and during the KMT era (see History of Taiwan) and it underwent some changes during this period, e.g. improved healthcare, tightened-up guarding but also the establishment of a vegetable patch to supplement prisoners’ food.
The prison was gradually wound down in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the wake of prison reforms, and inmates were transferred to a different facility. The prison closed altogether in 1994.
The old buildings were declared a municipal historical monument in 2001 and a national one in 2005. In 2011 the site was opened to the public as a museum.
What there is to see: I had read that you can have English-language guided tours arranged if you have someone phone ahead (see below), but I didn’t bother with that as I only wanted to see the prison. My wife and I simply turned up at the gate in the morning, waited for it to open and were then allowed by the friendly staff to roam freely (apparently the staff are local volunteers – and indeed hardly any English was spoken).
Past the imposing outer gate you come to a forecourt and then enter through another gate what used to be an administrative and reception tract.
Inside is a glass display cabinet with a fairly large and detailed scale model of the entire compound. Another, upright glass display cabinet contains uniforms from different eras and yet another one featured what I presume was prison inmate clothing.
An adjacent exhibition room has various artefacts on display, from personal belongings to electrical parts and even musical instruments. There were also a few knives and swords. One cabinet featured a Hannibal-Lecter-like leather head restraint. As all labels are in Chinese only, many items’ significance remained a mystery to me.
The main thing I had come for, though, was to see the cell tracts. Not all of them are accessible but the central one featured some bare solitary-confinement cells with just a (western-style) toilet in the corner and nothing else. A couple of cells, however, have been “reconstructed” with some basic bedding, bowls, clothing, a stool, etc. to look like they were still occupied.
You can also see a row of rooms branching off a main corridor, namely a medical examination room, a dispensary, a room with a dentist chair, a laundry and one room with two wooden single beds without bedding – possibly for warders originally.
Back outside you can go through an open steel door into a courtyard that looks incongruously tranquil, like a Japanese stone garden. You can enter another building and come to the visiting room with telephones in front of stone stools on either side, separated by a barred window. Another, locked building had some desks with paperwork on them, as you can make out when peeking through the window. So this was possibly part of the prison administration. Also through windows I spotted some open-air washing facilities.
Other parts of the compound were also locked, and one wing was temporarily inaccessible due to some sort of upcoming event (no idea of what nature).
On our way back out to the main gatehouse one of the museum staff insisted on taking a photo of my wife and me – and only when I later looked through the photos did I see a woman a few yards behind us with that typical Asian photo gesture with two hands raised with V-signs while slightly tilting the upper torso sideways, accompanied by a wide grin on the face. My wife and I did not do this …
All in all, I thought it was a worthwhile visit, despite the lack of English. Naturally, this comparatively small prison cannot compete in terms of grimness with the much larger and darker Jing-Mei prison in Taipei or the facilities on Green Island for political prisoners during the “White Terror” (see History of Taiwan).
Location: in the eastern part of central Chiayi City, on Weixin Road just south of the intersection with Linsen East Road.
Google Maps locator: [23.4862, 120.4587]
Access and costs: within walking distance in central Chiayi; free.
Details: For me it was just a ten-minute walk from my hotel up Weixin Road; from the western part of the city centre, e.g. from the train station it would be more like half an hour. So still doable. But there’d also be public transport options or that of grabbing a taxi (they’re quite cheap – but it might be useful to have the name of the prison site written down in Chinese to show to the driver: 國定古蹟-嘉義舊監獄).
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday from 9.30 a.m. to 12 noon and from 1.30 to 4 p.m.; closed Mondays
Admission is free.
There are several guided tours a day (which are also free) namely at 9.30 and 10.30 a.m. and at 1.30 and 2.30 p.m.); regularly these are conducted in Chinese only, but according to my guidebook it’s apparently possible to arrange a tour in English by having someone (e.g. hotel staff) call ahead. I didn’t bother with this as I primarily went for the visual aspects and didn’t feel the need to hear about construction details, escape attempts and alleged paranormal fantasies.
Time required: guided tours are said to last ca. one hour. I went unguided and spent only about half an hour at the site.
Combinations with other dark destinations: none within Chiayi City itself – but see under Taiwan in general.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see under Chiayi.
