RARE TANK, bunkers & more on Taiwan’s most FORTIFIED ISLAND
in this episode we head to the heavily fortified Taiwanese island of Kinmen, located just a few kilometers from rival China. After decades of tension the island is filled with bunkers tanks and other military relics, frozen in time. Hi I'm Bob , an urban explorer and with friends I explore the most amazing abandoned places worldwide. I'm on a road trip in China with Andrea and we are on our way to Kinmen, a small island group controlled by Taiwan, located just 6 km ,3.7 mi off the Chinese coast. After the Chinese civil
war ended in 1949, the nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan, but held on to Kinmen, turning it into a front line of cold war tension in the 1950s. The island was heavily bombed by the Chinese mainland during two major crisis with more than 400,000 shells fired in one campaign alone. For years Kinmen braced for an invasion, becoming one of the most fortified places in the region and the island was off limit to civilians for many years. Today remnants of that era still remain. Underground bunkers, coastal defenses and other abandoned military sites are scattered across the island. Although the artillery shelling ended long ago and the island now focuses on tourism centered around its military past the tension between China and Taiwan still lingers, made clear by the many active military installations we come across. Even the shops have a military theme.
Our first and also our last visit today is a well-known landmark on the beach. A tank partially buried in the sand only visible at low tide. Along Kenmen's coast rows of rusting landing spikes still stand, once placed to stop amphibious invasions from the mainland. These are the remains of an American M18 Hellcat, a World War II era tank. It was used for military shooting practice in the 1990s and was left behind when the site was decommissioned. We are surrounded by a beautiful ocean here on this Taiwanese island, but with this weather fishing is definitely off the table. Luckily I've got the next best thing and way more comfy. Introducing the sponsor of today's video Fishing Clash, the ultimate game
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the island's ultimate hidden gem; an abandoned underground hospital which we'll explore later. The next day a full day of exploring awaits us. Our first stop is an abandoned military cinema built by an army division in 1959. This 500 seat building once served as a theater cinema and
recreation hall and was likely closed somewhere in the late 1980s when the military present on Kinmen began to scale back. First location of the day is a theater. I like the army print on it. Watch out. Thorns? Yeah. Right, convenient oh I already see the chairs. It's a big one.
Yeah the door is wide open. ooh it's nice nice with the light here. This place was likely more than just entertainment, it was a vital outlet for soldiers stationed here. While movies and performances offered relief
from stress and isolation, theaters like this also served to boost morale deliver propaganda and even pass on orders. So close to conflict it may have been one of the few places where soldiers felt a brief sense of normality. Also some military colors. For how many people was this theatre? A few hundred? We shouldn't forget the projector room. Oh yeah. Might be still intact.
oh some kind of animal. I see it a goat. Looks like here's the jaw. Mhm. For a military theater it looks actually pretty nice and sweet normally military theaters are really boring and plain. This one has some kind of Greek vibe with all these paintings. It was repainted a few times I think I read this on the internet the text says something like uh: we have to stand for our country even if it will lead to our death. A collapsed room collapsed.
Mybe the changing rooms for the artists.You have a nice train . I think these were cut out from some kind of foam material. Some kind of military propaganda. Oh yeah because you can see the big hands. He doesn't have his nose anymore. Here is a guy and there's a big hand. An old TV here. A mummy. Really? Poor fella. Oh. It's a goat graveyard here. It feels like they are like cats,
like when they know they're going to die, they find a quiet peaceful place to die. And bones. We are lucky that we have all the chairs inside. Yeah otherwise it would be a boring place. Yeah. Oh this is the main entry. I want to see the exterior, how it looks like.
There's also some kind of curtain? Yeah I guess, looks like some tent wall or curtain. It was operating as a cultural house for the soldiers family. Could be too yeah. The multiple items we come across show that the theater was used for multiple purposes perhaps also after closure. Messing around. There's the staircase to the projector room. It's crazy, next door is I guess an active military building. It is. On our way here we saw the houses and blockades. Yeah. Projectors are still inside partly.
Yeah. Just the lenses are taken out. No air conditioning back in the day. Must have been really hot in here. Made in India. Westrex. All the lenses and glass work has been taken out. Really decayed inside.
That's pretty nice that it's still in there. Yeah. It is time to check the surrounding area. Big statue. Big bomb. Yeah, strange that it's not some kind of artist or someone important. It's a bomb. Yeah Everywhere you look there are bunkers there's a
bunker, there, there's some buildings over there, there too and here we just been in the theater. It's a strange experience walking here. It is. Military bunker straight forward, on the left private zoo. As you can see many former military objects now serve for multiple purposes. Next we head to another military theater nestled in the heart of a village. We're at another theater.
Brand new lock, but probably from the side we can enter it. Let's go, let's go let's go jesus It's really dark inside it is. Oh what the heck. Yoohoo. I think we need to go. yeah yeah let's go. I need my flashlight. Oh it's messy, but it's completely different than the other one, this looks more military.
Not so many decorations here. No. This theater was built in the 1950s and closed in 1987 as the military presence waned and televisions became common in every home. Having explored a similar site already we keep our visit brief. Pull it really fast and then we can see the movie. It's time to move to our next stop, an old coastal stronghold where a tank lies hidden somewhere inside the bunker. To our surprise it looks like a tourist site. The impenetrable fortress. Crazy, there's no one here. Yeah, but there are personal belongings.
Feels strange. Yeah, really nobody is here. Maybe it's just a group of volunteers who keep their stuff here. Look at this, small statue. It turns out that elderly veterans are the ones who clean and maintain this place and they still raise the flag here regularly keeping the past alive. I like the symbol there with the tiger. When I started exploring I also had one of these and now. Quite a difference Ah, maybe it is not. The tank is somewhere else. It's not in the
steer side it's probably a little bit further down. The Taiwanese sun here. Yes. So in the distance you can see a lighthouse and here inside the bunker you can see exactly how far it is, 5.2 km. This is the pagoda, also with the distance. Electricity is still running here.
We go back outside to check the surrounding. Crazy, so somewhere here, there's a tank hidden in the bunker. The least funny way to spend a day on the beach standing here like all day. Waiting yeah. I think they blocked the entrance. Oh it looks like we're on the wrong
one, we can check in the windows here on the other side. Nope. Ah this is not the one. Closed. I wonder if it's still in use. Crazy that they put all these uh I don't know sharp things to the rock. It is. They put glass in it, I should make a closeup of it Jesus, crazy walking in a minefield of glass here.
Oh nasty one, this one. Here they just smashed bottles and put them in concrete. We finally spot what we've been looking for. Epic. Oh check this, what a crazy idea to put a tank here in the bunker. wow yeah it is epic. It's pretty well hidden actually. It is.
It's completely rusty because of the sea water. Time to check it. Yeah but it's crazy because they never can remove it. No. Yeah let's go in. Woohoo.
Tank in a tank. Still a miracle that you can step on it. True that. Oh here's the cannon. Everything is still in here.
Here's the chair. It's not too bad, this is the end already. Bags of sand. Look at the text. I wonder how far this will go. Oh, it's a long one. What the [ __ ]?! Oh no, I already know where we are. How could we miss this? We're worse than the tourist. We ended up where we started our explore.
We head to another coastal bunker, one that doesn't appear on any map and that's exactly why we're here. Here you can see fried eggs. I see some bunker doors over there. I hope there are some underground tunnels here too. Oh there was some light, you see. Nice. Oh that one is intact with the light. Oh they have multiple colors, you see red, red, green.
This guy was lucky, he had sea view. I wonder how many people were stationed here... during the war. Yeah this is station 18.
We move from the coast into the forest where a hidden military base is set to conceal an intriguing statue. Wonder where we end up here. Oh look,a bunker. It's crazy that there are bunkers everywhere.
It's one of the most fortified islands I've ever seen. Like a natural cave they made here. Pretty crazy, everywhere you go bunkers pop up.
It's like Angkor Wat, but then the bunker version. it's good natural camouflage. Oh yeah. It's nice that every bunker is numbered. There's not really something to see but it's crazy that it's just in the middle of the forest. Sandbags. This feels like a natural cave. It is. It is.
Oh !oh! What the [ __ ] Was it a pigeon? it was. Oh my god. So many bunkers cannot believe in every building people were stationed. Concrete door and it goes down. Nice, there are some tunnels which you have to crawl through. Crazy and here can go up again, ah gun positions..
small huntsman spider. We pass countless military installations scattered through the forest but the statue remains elusive, until we stumble upon the remains of a larger base. Like a jungle. It's really like Indiana Jones. It is yeah, it is. Funny nice jungle explorer. You can al already see some kind of writing on the wall. Oh yeah, this what are we looking for. Nice.
really cool. It looks like a movie prop from the movie Indiana Jones right? Maybe the treasure is also somewhere here. After a long search we finally found it and it's much bigger than we expected but a real surprise there seems to be more waiting to be discovered. Let's check where it leads to. It's really like an Indiana Jones adventure here. Oh it goes even deeper. Unbelievable it's really large this one.
from here I have to crawl. There is an exit. and there you can see it collapsed. Back outside. It's really crazy, it's like a playground for military people. Oh all these roots nice. the lookout tower here, cool. With the sun beginning to set we decide
It's time to head back to the car and make our way to the next location. In next week's episode we dive to the island's true hidden gem, an incredible abandoned site you don't want to miss. Time to visit the highlight of the island, an the underground hospital. What an entry. Thanks for watching please leave a comment and thumbs up and subscribe to my channel for more epic adventures. Don't forget to download Fishing Clash using the link in the description and claim your exclusive rewards with my gift.
2025-04-15 06:18
