Photo of the Day: Northern Taiwan's 'Weird Building' creeps higher

每日一圖：北台灣“怪怪樓”爬得更高了

Owner of Yehshan Building has spent NT$100 million over 33 years on 'dream castle'


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's infamous "Weird Building" (怪怪樓) appears to have further gained in height amid 33 years of sporadic construction.

Nestled in Taoyuan's Longtan District, the Yehshan Building (葉山樓) has been dubbed the “Weird Building" (怪怪樓) for its bizarre mix of Chinese and European architectural styles and the snail's pace at which its eccentric owner is gradually cobbling it together. On Friday (Nov. 18), a member of the Facebook group Streets Observation Academy posted a photo showing that a new tower had sprouted out of the top of the structure.



The netizen wrote that "Howl's Moving Castle," a reference to the Japanese animated fantasy film, appears that it "could move at any time." The post soon gained over 8,200 likes, 150 shares, and 584 comments such as the following:

"I saw it built when I was a child, and then I got married and had children..."

"I haven't been back to Longtan for a long time, and I realized that it has grown taller after seeing this picture. I grew up with this throughout my childhood, and now I am already 30 years old."

"I haven't been there for a long time, and I didn't recall it having a pyramid above before."

"When I was young, everyone said it was a haunted house, and when my family members drove by, my sister and I would duck down to the floorboard."



The building is located at the intersection of Zhongzheng Road, Zhongfeng Road, Donglong Road, Dachang Road, and Outer Ring Road. According to HouseFun News, the structure was planned and designed by the owner, Yeh Fa-pao (葉發苞), owner of the Yehshan Iron Materials Company (葉山鐵材公司).

When he was a child, he wanted to build a "dream castle in the sky", and at the age of 35, he bought a plot covering 100 ping (a ping equals 3.3 square meters) for NT$3 million 33 years ago and started building it. However, the pace of the building was extremely slow with only one floor being completed a year before work slowed even more.



After spending over NT$100 million and over three decades, the edifice is currently believed to have at least nine floors. The castle has gone through three stages of construction: The first stage was installing wood frames, the second was pouring reinforced concrete, and the last adding exterior decoration from top to bottom.

Although the building has not yet been completed, in the eyes of Ye Fabao, it is still an "unfinished work of art." When the building is finally completed in the future, Ye says that the outer walls will no longer be rented out to advertisers and the public will be able to see it in full.