Juifen Gold Mine

Mac Hu took us to see an old gold mining town about an hour drive from Taipei, called Juifun.  Mac is in charge of the Translation Department for the Church in Taiwan and has a fun sense of humor, so he immediately became Bob's buddy.  

Bob and Mac in the gold mine 

 Here we are ready to go into the mine with our hard hats. 

This mine was original owned and built by the Japanese from the early 1900's until World War II ended.  Sadly, the Japanese also used British POW'S to work the mine during the war. The Japanese treated the POW'S so poorly that over 1200 died while working in this gold mine. Each POW had a daily quota they needed to achieve; if they failed to meet their daily quota they were severely beat with their own mining tools. Taiwan took ownership after the war and kept the mine operating until 1986.

This is suppose to be a 500 lb gold brick that Bob is trying to lift. Mac declared that it is real; but I still doubt it, because there were no guards, no electronic devises around it, and no bars that would come down to protected it at night.  But still, Mac said it was real! The glass case had openings at each end so that you could touch the gold. There was a sign that said "DO NOT SCRATCH THE GOLD".