Reestablishing a golden era

According to Taipei County Government employee and Director of the soon to be completed park, Chiang Min-chin (江明親), the county hasn't forgotten about Chiufen and nor does it plan to. Instead. It's hoped that the development of Jinghuashih will prove economically rewarding for both towns.

"I think people are being a bit anxious when they say that the park will kill off Chiufen as a tourist destination. It's so famous that tourists will still go there regardless of the construction of the park," said Chiang. "The project is not solely about Jinguashih, but rather a positive step in the right direction for both towns."

Jinguashih's gold, silver and copper deposits might have dried up a long time ago, but visitors to the town who find themselves suffering from a case of gold fever can still try their luck. Panning for gold in the numerous rivers that run through the hamlet, according to the park's Jack Wu (吳鎮宇), is not illegal, although the chances of finding anything are incredibly slim.

While substantial funding has been given to reinventing the town as a joyful tourist retreat, there is a much darker side to Jinguashih's history.

From November 1942 until the surrender of Japanese Imperial Army on Taiwan in August 1945, the township was home to the infamous Kinkaseki POW camp.

"We certainly don't plan to ignore the town's less positive history," said Chiang. "Working alongside the [POW Camps Memorial Society] we plan to establish a permanent exhibition focusing on this issue. After all, it is a part of the town's history that cannot be ignored."

Large numbers of these POWs were put to work in the mines that held the largest copper alloy deposits to be found anywhere within the Japanese Empire. Over 1,000 British Commonwealth and Allied troops were interned at Kinkaseki at one time or another and all were subject to inhuman treatment, denied the most basic of medical facilities and flogged by their jailers, some of who were Taiwanese, if they failed to reach their daily quota.

"I think it is certainly necessary and good to include a part on the POWs in the story of Jinguashih and the mines," said Director of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society Michael Hurst MBE in an e-mail. "The main reason why the story is not that well known is because the Japanese wanted to keep what happened in Kinkaseki Camp -- and all of the other camps on Taiwan -- a secret from the local population.