View Image Details On the factory floor at the old automotive plant in Dacun Township.

The massive ruins of the Yǔtián Automotive Factory 羽田汽車工廠 are located on the Dayeh University campus in Dàcūn 大村, Changhua 彰化. There are four main buildings, each approximately 360 meters in length and 90 meters across for an estimated total of 32,500 square meters apiece. Outside of the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park 彰化濱海工業區 in Lukang 鹿港 (which opened in 1995) these buildings are probably the largest in the county—and the entire complex is readily visible from space.

View Image Details The view from outside. Several of the buildings to the right had been cleaned out and might be used for overflow parking. Most of the photos in this piece are from the two buildings to the far left.

To trace the history of these immense structures we must return to the mid-1960s and the founding of Yutian Machinery Co. Ltd. 羽田機械, initially a small producer of motorcycle parts and supplies. Their business grew and in 1976 they signed a deal to produce several of the the Peugeot line of automobiles. The first cars rolled off the assembly line in 1979.

View Image Details Deeper into the automotive plant.

View Image Details It is quite a jaunt from one side of the building to the other.

View Image Details Here there was a chair and a curious arrangement of stones on the ground.

View Image Details Life in the trenches once occupied by immense machinery.

According to this timeline of the Taiwanese automotive industry Yutian expanded operations in the 1980s and began production of a number of Daihatsu automobiles. Business was booming and the company went public in 1988, raising billions of NT, but—in a story that will surprise nobody familiar with how big business works in Taiwan—something sinister was lurking beneath the surface.

View Image Details In between the first and second building.

View Image Details Around back at the westernmost building at Yutian Automotive Plant.

View Image Details The rooftop at the very back of the westernmost building has been stripped away by the elements.

Meanwhile, in 1990, the parent company founded Dayeh Institute Group 大葉集團, a “German style” polytechnic college located immediately adjacent to the automotive plant. After rapid expansion and accreditation this was renamed Dayeh University 大葉大學, which occupies the site to this day. (It was actually a student at the university who first led me to the site.)

View Image Details Gigantic factory doors on the west-facing side of the first factory building. It is difficult to establish a sense of scale here but these doors are several meters tall.

View Image Details Archaic lightswitch. View Image Details Broken wiring.

View Image Details A rusty old door at the back of the first factory building.

Sometime between 1990 and 1995 the automotive plant was decommissioned and vehicle assembly presumably moved elsewhere (a detail I have not been able to divine). In 1995 the company unexpectedly fell apart due to tax evasion and embezzlement of funds. News reports suggest the general manager had been siphoning off assets in the years leading up to the scandal, leaving nothing to pay the overdue tax bill when the government finally came around to collect. Soon the factory and its contents were auctioned off by the courts. Since then not much has been done with the empty shells of the buildings themselves.

View Image Details These open wounds on the factory floor have become infected with biological lifeforms.

View Image Details Nature reclaims the vast automotive factory in Dacun Township.

View Image Details Beneath the factory floor. There are only a few points at which you can descend below ground level, this being one of them. View Image Details Rusty cans in the old automotive plant. Faint echoes and clues.

View Image Details Sifting through the wreckage at the old automotive plant.

When I first set foot inside these buildings I was completely in awe. The scale of the place cannot be reproduced in photographs—you really have to go there yourself to appreciate how vast and empty these buildings are. The far end of each building doesn’t stretch to the horizon but it certainly feels that way. Hearing the wind blow through the broken rooftop is quite an experience as you walk the length of each building. There are bigger ruins in Taiwan but none more empty and serene that I have found.

View Image Details Floating above the factory floor. This view was captured from an observation platform deep inside the first factory building.

View Image Details Quality control. View Image Details Objective: zero defects.

View Image Details Sunset from the security checkpoint out front.

One of the more captivating aspects of urban exploration is the sense of mystery that surrounds every new find. What was this place? What was its purpose? Why was it abandoned? Answers to these questions have been revealed here—but at the time of exploration I was still in the dark. It was a factory, sure enough, but what did it produce? The motivational posters at the southern end of the outermost building provided the answer—automobiles—and with a bit of sleuthing around the internet has provided the rest.

View Image Details Looking north from the observation platform.

View Image Details Back at ground level again, appreciating the immensity of the ruins.

This might not be the most inspiring or interesting of the industrial ruins of Taiwan to explore but it’s still worth a visit if you’re in the area. Access is not at all difficult, nor are there many dangers to watch out for. The plant has also been written up here.