What's in Yilan City? Part One (宜蘭市)
Yilan… is not quite as alien looking as this. At the Yilan Administration Museum. Normally I won’t mess around with hues but the verdant plant life made this look nice
Here's an often overlooked part of the northeast coast. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say “I'm going on a trip to Yilan City” before, and that made me curious. I chose possibly the hottest, stickiest day of the year so far to explore the city but somehow still managed to enjoy the trip. The city has a ton of small sites that in isolation aren't amazing but strung together make for a varied day. This first part follows a rough arc from the train station to the winery.
A rare large 1930’s house on Hemu Road. I was surprised to see something like this had survived into the present day with few alterations. Haven’t found anything online about this one.
The Yilan area was originally inhabited by the Kavalan aboriginal tribe. A large Han Chinese settlement wasn't established until the early 1800's. For some time the city was surrounded by walls but these were removed in 1913. The city developed quite rapidly in the Japanese era and it still has a lot of sites from that time. Overall though it's a small, sleepy place.
The Train Station Area
Yilan Station is modern and fairly plain, with the exception of the random giraffe sticking out of the roof. The source of this unexpected creature is an illustrator called Jimmy who has written famous children’s books. The area to south of the station building has been made into a small park and is filled with his designs. A few old warehouses with wooden roofs to the north have been well converted into commercial sites. Opposite is a plaza with a flying train, another Jimmy creation, that was holding a market. Another slice of fantasy is this towering white amusement arcade, though it's definitely on the cheesy and rundown side of things.
Yilan shifts into an disjointed urban fantasy land around the train station
The Park and Photography Site
A block away from Jimmy Park is the modest Zhongshan Park. There's an interesting monument here to Yilan's violent past. In the early days settlers on the Yilan plain, both Han and Kavalan, were victims of Atayal head-hunting raids. Qing dynasty troops were ineffective and it wasn't until the early Japanese era that the Atayal were defeated and agreed to stop head hunting here. This monument was built in 1909 and buried underneath are Atayal knives and the skulls of their victims. The park was also the site of the city Shinto Shrine in the Japanese era but nothing remains of it now. In the center of the park is a locked air raid shelter.
The bunker/air raid shelter
Across the road in an otherwise abandoned government housing area I was surprised to find a small photography gallery. I quite liked the work on display and was happy to find a library of high quality photo-books on the second floor. I get the impression this place has only just opened as I've found no information about it online so far, even in Chinese. Not even a name on Google Maps. The large grey building nearby was the Yilan City Council Office and it has also been recently restored as a gallery and restaurant.
A nice gable with dragons on this shophouse and the old council building opposite.
Outside the bulky Luna Plaza shopping mall is the former general office and foyer of Yilan Prison, built in 1896. It's a pretty building which is now a bistro. The shopping mall occupies the rest of the former prison site.
The Literary Museum and Yilan Administration Museum
Both of these are beautiful wooden houses in tranquil gardens. There's a small entrance fee for the administration museum and it has exhibits on Yilan's local history. It's about as exciting as you'd expect it to be. It may have been better if there was some English signage but I've had to look everything up afterwards. The house and garden are the real attractions here and they are well looked after. It was the official residence of county magistrates and was built in 1900. The bureaucratic exhibits were redeemed slightly by a map room and a friendly cat.
A couple of wooden houses nearby have been restored to more commercial uses and one is the literary museum. This museum won't be of much interest to non-Chinese speakers though.
The Yilan Winery
The administration block from 1929 and a more modern distillery building
You may have noticed from other posts that I like a good historic factory. This one was established in 1906 but most of the buildings date from the 1920's to 40's. There are some well written and designed boards next to each building with dates and historic pictures.
Sadly though English signage is pretty scant elsewhere. The liquor museum had very little. Like the brewery in Taipei this is still a working factory and you'll be sharing space with forklift trucks. Certain parts of the site are off limits but sometimes the boundaries aren't all that clear. Workers didn't seem to mind me accidentally straying into a restricted area near the smokestack. I was a little sad the bottling plant was off limits as the rattling conveyors were like something out of Wallace and Gromit movie.
The main focus of this site is a rice wine made from a red yeast called anka. It has a sweet taste that isn't terrible but it's not something I'd drink normally. The drink is famous in Yilan and a few variants from the winery have won awards. Predictably there's anka flavored everything on sale but I've learnt my lesson with this sort of thing after the strawberry sausages at Strawberry World. Most of the site is very commercialized with the anka 'museum' really a large gift shop. Another building is given over to a company that makes gold infused drinks.
Gold foil ice-cream and a sheet of gold foil
The largest warehouse is full of the usual Taiwan liquor company merchandise. Aside from the shops there was a warehouse given over to a calligraphy exhibition and there were a few art installations around. Overall, worth quickly stopping by if you like historic sites and alcohol but otherwise the site is marred a little by over-commercialization and a lack of creativity in some of the displays.
Just opposite the gate are some abandoned dormitory buildings for the brewery workers. I had a little wander around these but they are fairly plain and empty. They're also mosquito infested. I don't usually get bitten but they were bothering me a lot.
Part 2 to follow soon. All sites can be found on the Hidden Taiwan Map. The adventures that make up these entries are often posted as Instagram stories at tomrookart first. So give that a follow too if you like as it can sometimes be a year or more before stuff turns up here! I keep this project free of intrusive ads but it does take up a fair bit of time. If you would like to support it please either buy some of my work here (use code hiddentaiwan for a discount). Or book through this link at My Taiwan Tour, who cover a huge range of places and experiences in Taiwan.