4 Eerie Abandoned Cities

Hashima Island

Hashima, or Gunkanjima Island, is an abandoned coal mining community 15km outside of Nagsaki, Japan. In 1959, the island had the highest population in the world with a density of 1.391 people per km^2. The island was abruptly abandoned in 1974 when the coal resources ran out an the workers living there were no longer needed. Travel to the island is prohibited.

The literal translation of the island means “Battleship Island” because of it’s silhouette.

hasima island

Everything literally falls apart, in a relatively short period of time.

hashing falling apart

The abandoned school:

hashima school

Here is an interesting video of a man returning to the island where he grew up:

via videosift.com

Kowloon Walled City

The Kowloon walled city had a long history with political and territorial disputes. After Japan’s WWII surrender in 1948 the area became a part of British Hong Kong. Squatters began to build, and when the city became part of the People Republic of China, even more were added. The city was a lawless haven, British government didn’t want to deal with it, and Hong Kong Police were not allowed to enter. The Kowloon walled city was an “in-between zone” ruled by nobody but the fearsome triads that ran the city.

View of the city shortly before demolition.

kowloon city

Inside the city’s alleys. In some areas, daylight was completely blocked out.

Shabby makeshift power lines littered the city and it’s rooftop.

The Kowloon Walled city was demolished in 1993. Check out this great video of the interior of the city from the movie “Bloodsport:

Pripyat

The infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant failure left this entire city abandoned. Because the residents were only allowed to take a single suitcase of items with them during the evacuation, almost everything was left behind. This gives the city the appearance that it’s inhabitants simply vanished – children’s toys, documents, photos, can all still be found withing thousands of abandoned apartments.

View of the city’s ferris wheel. Those of you who play Call of Duty 4 will recognize this.

Although radiation still exists, its possible to visit for a short amount of time without getting sick.

The swimming pool

Like other abandoned cities, Pripyat has been the setting of many movies and video games. Watch this incredible video of the city:

San Zhi

Outside of Taipei, Taiwan, lies the abandoned San Zhi Resort. What makes this abandoned place unique is the strange buildings. In fact, that could be why they are abandoned – faulty construction practices caused several of the worker’s death. Consequently the resort was never finished and it is said that the place is haunted by the workers who died building it.

A futuristic resort – now completely abandoned.

Haunted? Looks like it.

They don’t look safe. Some say the pods are made of a faulty kind of plastic, which is why the pods seem to be falling apart after such a short period of abandonment.

Know of any other modern abandoned cities I should include in this list? Feel free to comment.

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20 Responses to “4 Eerie Abandoned Cities”

Uncle B April 17th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

Environmental disasters we don’t learn from! Sustainable, environmentally friendly and well planned stuff takes strong governments? Not so. Humanity wastes energy on war when we should be using it to produce survival units for individuals, commune farms, anything but the disastrous waste of war, and the waste shown here. Maybe the coming depression in the USA, combined with the recent downfall of the Soviet Union will be the thrust for a new paradigm of love and survival for mankind, but not likely without a horrendous disaster for humanity to shock the human psyche.

Douglas Booth April 19th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

Well put Unde B …
I like the idea of a “Horrendous Disaster” .

Mike May 14th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Uncle B,
You are a twit. At best. (Trying to be polite, but far stronger words come to mind.)
First, the USA is not in for a major depression — in spite of Bush’s total mismanagement of the economy. You’re forgetting that the US rides the leading edge of the tech wave. Everyone (even the Japanese) follow us. Many nations have moved closer in certain technologies (like Taiwan in chip manufacture), but the theoretical edge of physics and engineering has been (and will remain) in the United States since the end of WWII.
We are so far ahead of any potential “competitor” that the only thing that could bring us down from the edge would be a fascist or communist regime pulling govt money out of research projects. (Fascists would buy tanks. Communists would try to grow more food and build palaces to the people. We know how well BOTH of those worked, now don’t we?) Neither is even vaguely likely. That tech edge makes our economy insurmountable, even with the approximately 100million of us who are carrying the weight of the other 200million Americans. (China is doing a right nice job of figuring out how to harness their wealthy people to carry the destitute. They might be a true competitor in 50 years.)
As for “a new paradigm of love and survival for mankind,” I can only say, “What the hell kind of cheap weed are you smoking?”
War IS the natural state of humans. We have been preparing for, fighting and recovering from war continuously as far back as the archaeological record goes.
There has NEVER been a period in which humans were not in conflict with each other. Better to master the preparation stage and ALWAYS be a step ahead. People bemoan the fact that the only hard industries left in the US are military contractors, mostly producing heavy weaponry and light rifles. Guess what? They’re the ONLY production that must stay local. As long as we have the ships and guns to keep the sea lanes open, everything else will come to us in due time.

BladePHF September 6th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

The city that was a inspiration for Silent Hill. I forget the name, but goggle it, it´s pretty awesome.

Aceoaces September 12th, 2008 at 9:27 pm

That is fantastic, as soon as I saw that ferris wheel I immediately recognized it, like I had been there. I had no idea that they took the architecture for the game from the city’s actual design.

silversta's me2DAY October 13th, 2008 at 8:02 am

은별의 생각…

버려진 도시, 軍艦島. 분명히 존재하는데 이 세상이 아닌 것 같다. 위험해서 출입불가인데 그래서 더 신비로운 듯. 이래서 폐허 오타쿠들이 있구나 싶네….

Jani November 29th, 2008 at 11:03 pm

BladePHF>>> I think you meant Centralia, PA…it was used as the basis for the Silent Hill games and the movie.

Steve M December 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

To Mike:

Hey Mike, read some history. Rome was the technological and military center of the Ancient world and yet they fell. Roman ships and legions kept the sea lanes open right up until the day their enemies were marching through the capital. Though the centuries have passed, the conditions of failure are very similar.

Bankrupt nations do not stay powerful. Period. Look at what happened to Britain, the mightiest and richest empire ever, until they fought one war too many. Sun Tzu, the author of the Art of War (still used to train officers at West Point), warns many times that actually fighting to achieve your ends will eventually deplete you too much and destroy you.

America is not that far ahead of its competitors, especially in things that can destroy the country. Seems to me that Chinese and Russian nukes, though less sophisticated, would do a fine job of wiping America off the face of the Earth. Any conceivable tech advantages the US has, like the proposed missile shields, are far too expensive and inefficient to offer protection sufficient to prevent America’s destruction.

But why go that route? War is not the natural state of Man. It is caused by shortages of resources (both real and manufactured), and far most commonly by prideful and bloodthirsty men who only respect force, sorta like yourself. Human societies have spent a lot of effort evolving laws to ensure that the guy with the biggest club doesn’t dominate his neighborhood. International law will catch up to this thinking eventually.

The economic crisis that is sweeping the world shows that everyone is interconnected by a web of international relations – financial, cultural, etc. To have one nation think that they can still pound on their neighbors to get what they want will lead to destruction for all. Abandoned cities will be the least of our problems then.

Urban G January 3rd, 2009 at 6:50 pm

Typing “Varosha, Cyprus abandoned city” into Google will blow your mind if you enjoy abandoned cities! A huge city abandoned since 1974 and guarded by Turkish military police. Must see.

スティーブ February 21st, 2009 at 6:37 pm

I agree with Steve M on this one. Just because a country is big and powerful it doesn’t mean that it can go around belittling everyone else who thinks differently to it. I live in Japan and to be honest, the American influence isn’t really making that much difference on thier society. The Japanese do not follow America as much as you think my friend. They seem to prefer the English over America. Japan’s empire fell to the hands of the nuclear weapon. But they just picked themselves up and carried on and build themselves an even better country then before. I’d like to see America do the same if someone decided to drop an nuclear weapon on them.

On the technology side, America is not that far ahead of anyone. There are several things that other countries can do far better than America. Firstly, stealth paint, that was invented in ENGLAND! DNA discovered in CAMBRIDGE! I would go on but there’s point. People who are up thier own arses never listen anyways. Just because you’ve invented a few computer programs and have started a few wars with a few countries, it doesn’t make you king of the hill. I would seriously recommend reading some history before posting comments that are factually and historically incorrect.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

スティーブ

Rob, Sacramento, CA April 21st, 2009 at 11:58 pm

スティーブ , maybe you should do what you suggest and actually check your facts and history before pretending to know them. Japan’s rebuilding after WWII was due to the very help of the US. Same goes for (what was) West Germany and several other countries decimated by WWII. At no other time in history had the victor helped to actually rebuild their enemy and allowed them to govern themselves instead turning it into a colony. Up to that point colonization was the norm and was what the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Rome, etc. all usually did after wars ended. It’s no small coincidence that many of these former enemies are now considered allies. As for DNA and “Stealth paint” those are irrelevent and you only bring them up to divert the arguement…but whatever makes you happy.

Additionally, to those making lame comparisons to Rome, the analogy is faulty. Human society has matured, governmental bodies are different and the economic conditions are distinctly different then the pre-middle age era that Rome existed in. Maybe you should actually read and study the matter before pretending to be experts on the subject. Idiots.

EK4zone May 25th, 2009 at 5:53 pm

Hashima, or Gunkanjima Island, is an abandoned coal mining community 15km outside of Nagsaki, Japan. wew…

Ollie June 10th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

Over time the symptoms of depression got easier to handle as I developed an understanding of the disease, and tireless work on my self from a bunch of angles reaped enormous benefits. Would you agree with this approach?

Saxenaltese June 20th, 2009 at 1:31 am

Вот так,несогласен с предыдущими блоггерами
Споки Bye

hey idiot buy mp3s only here! September 4th, 2009 at 6:56 am

hey idiot buy mp3s only here!…

Very usefull. Thanks! hey idiot buy mp3s only here!…

Laura February 19th, 2010 at 11:30 pm

Mike, you are at the very least, the definition of twit. You think war is good and the economy will do fine, but the reality is that a few months after writing your post, the shit hit the fan and the economy went to hell.

It’s just ironic as fuck to read an idiotic naysayers post like yours, claiming everything will be fine (based on nothing, I might add) when the reality was millions of lost jobs and trillions of borrowed money.

Now, had the US not actually gone to war, not only would thousands of lives not be ruined, but the 7 trillion dollars spent in the middle east could hvae been used to help the economy.

But hey, for having been (that’s in past tense) a bloodhungry idiotic nation, you get what you deserve.

At least things have changed greatly under Obama – the rest of the world doesn’t have any excuse now to hate the US.

Kiley May 12th, 2010 at 8:37 pm

You are educated When u have the ability To listen 2 almost anything Without losing ur Temper & self confidence!

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