Rumors die hard, especially where buried treasure is supposedly involved.
In dozens of places across Taiwan, treasure hunters are digging for gold and other booty they believe Japanese troops buried before their hurried retreat from Taiwan after WWII.
One of the most unusual digs is going on in a parking lot just blocks from the Presidential Office, where a backhoe spews smoke into the night air as its claws crack through the asphalt.
PHOTO: AP
The dig was the idea of a mysterious and grumpy retiree who only gives his surname, Yang, and claims to be a former air force officer.
After getting government approval to start prospecting for the gold, Yang attracted little attention until a magazine did a story recently and prompted a media frenzy.
"Go away, you're disturbing us," Yang recently said as he shooed reporters from the site.
"I am not going to tell you anything," he said, closing two metal doors at an entrance to the lot.
Yang expects to uncover at least NT$50 million (US$1.5 million) in gold, the magazine reported.
But so far, his search has been in vain and time is running out. His permit from the National Property Bureau expires today.
Since the 1960s, the government has granted 51 permits to treasure hunters for sites around Taiwan, said Su Wei-cheng (
"But no one has ever uncovered anything," Su said.
The government doesn't mind. Costs for the digs are usually handled by the diggers, and the law says whatever they uncover is national property.
But the treasure hunters could get between 30 percent and 50 percent of whatever they find, Su said.
Many historians just laugh when asked about the possibility of buried Japanese gold.
It was common for Japanese troops to stash weapons, clothes, food stores and gold in mountainsides, said Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元), a history professor at National Chengchi University.
"But it's hard to imagine that if it really was buried here, someone would not have run off with it long ago," Hsueh said.
That hasn't stopped people from digging. Even governments are getting involved.
Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior approved an NT$3 million (US$91,185) budget to help support another dig in northern Taiwan. For years it has been rumored that Japanese gold was also buried at the Tawulun Battery Fort, a high mountain peak that watches over the northern port city of Keelung.
The peak is an ideal lookout spot. Enshrouded in thick cover of trees and shrubs, the platform peers down over Keelung and the surrounding sea.
The Japanese built bunkers, storage tunnels for cannon balls and tracks for cannons on the peak.
It's rumored that 5,000kg of gold is buried somewhere near the fort. The rumor first started when a man wrote to the Defense Ministry in 1983 asking if he could dig for gold on the site.
Although no one knows if the rumor is true, the story continues to inspire. A few months ago, some eager gold-seekers drove a backhoe onto the site and began digging in the middle of the night, said Lin Chen-hsing (
Lin wouldn't say whether he believed the rumor was true or not, or whether he hoped the gold would be recovered.
"This is all about protecting the historical site. It's not about the gold," Lin said.
Keelung residents are glad the government is taking over the dig, said Lee Yuan-lin, a neighborhood leader.
"Residents are tired of people coming in and digging up land here and there," Lin said. "They've had enough."
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe