Country file · Asia & the Middle East
Haunted places in Taiwan
What are the most haunted places in Taiwan? The best-known is Minxiong Haunted House.
Taiwan’s ghost culture centres on Ghost Month, the seventh lunar month, when the gates of the underworld are believed to open. Temples and families make offerings to wandering spirits, people avoid swimming, moving house or whistling at night, and the island’s great pudu ceremonies feed the hungry dead. Folk beliefs in the mosin-a (a mountain spirit that leads people astray) and in restless ghosts mix with Buddhist and Taoist practice.
- 1 haunting
- 6 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Taiwan
The ghost lore of Taiwan
The island’s most famous haunted house is the roofless 1929 Liu family mansion at Minxiong in Chiayi County. Its legend rests on a real event: in the late 1940s an officer of the Nationalist troops quartered there fired at a supposed ghost and killed one of his own soldiers. Minxiong now promotes the house, together with its Ghost King temple festival, as one of the township’s “three treasures.”
Many famous ghost spots in Taiwan are private ruins or temples. The best way to experience the island’s ghost culture is through its public Ghost Month festivals, which are among the most spectacular in Asia.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Keelung
Home to the Keelung Mid-Summer Ghost Festival, held since 1855 after deadly clan feuds, with its parades and the release of water lanterns to guide spirits.
- Minxiong, Chiayi County
The farming township of the Liu family mansion and the Daishiye (Ghost King) temple, whose Ghost Month festival draws huge crowds.
- Sanzhi, New Taipei
The site of the futuristic “UFO houses,” an abandoned resort surrounded by ghost rumours until it was demolished around 2010.
Timeline
- 1929The Liu mansion is built Minxiong Haunted House
Landowner Liu Rong-ru builds a three-wing Western-style mansion with gardens and a fountain, one of the grandest houses in the district.
- Late 1940sA soldier shot by mistake Minxiong Haunted House
Nationalist troops are quartered in the empty house. According to an eyewitness account later recorded in the local school’s history, an officer fires at a supposed ghost and kills one of his own soldiers. Retellings date the shooting variously to 1946 or 1949.
- 1981Gui Wu Jin Di Minxiong Haunted House
Director Yao Feng-pan, a pioneer of Taiwanese horror, films Gui Wu Jin Di based on the legend, after a TV drama on the story in 1973.
- 29 November 2015The school-history account published Minxiong Haunted House
China Times reports the soldier-shooting story from Xingzhong Elementary School’s history, giving the haunting a documented starting point.
- November 2020The haunted house for sale Minxiong Haunted House
A for-sale banner goes up: 375 ping of land including part of the mansion is offered at about NT$13.5 million, drawing wide interest.
- 29 July 2022The Haunted House of Minxiong Minxiong Haunted House
A feature film named after the house opens in Taiwanese cinemas.
From other news sites
Latest from Taiwan
No recent paranormal headlines from Taiwan. See all the latest paranormal news.