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Two and a half years ago I walked and hitchhiked around the island of Taiwan. I liked it so much I'm starting my next trip by doing it again.

A couple of months into my trip I learned that some police stations, especially in rural areas, especially on the east coast, actually provide camping facilities for cyclists. (And walkers can use them too.)

This time I'd like to make the best use of them. So I'm looking for their official site, an official list of them, or any unofficial list.

I'm especially interested in whether they exist elsewhere on the island. I passed by or visited a couple of random police stations for unrelated reasons on my last trip and the one in Dulan, Taitung was the only one I saw with my own eyes.

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This website (which is the first entry on my Google search with the keyword 台灣派出所營地 (Taiwan Police Station Campsite), not affiliated) is a list of campsites in Taiwan, and lists two entries with the tag "police station". One is in Dulan, Taitung as the OP mentioned, and one is in Changbin Township, Taitung. The listing is unfortunately in Chinese only.

However, readers should note that the two campsites above are in the process of being decommissioned, and re-purposed as a rest/recreational area instead. This is reported in a number of Taiwan media in 2017 (China Times, Liberty Times). Quoting the Liberty Times (translation mine, apologies for the strange writing - I do not translate text for a living!):

台東東海岸4個分駐、派出所免費開放帳篷區，每年造福超過2千位背包客，但部分員警抱怨，縣議員也指不符專業，縣警局長黃慶惠今天表示，目前僅存的2個露地，將遇壞不修，自然淘汰。

Every year 2,000 backpackers benefit from the free campsites operated by four police stations in East Coast Taitung. However, such campsites are not popular amongst some policemen, and attract criticism from a county legislator on its deviation from the force's mission. The Commissioner for the (Taitung) county police has stated today that the force is in the process of decommissioning the remaining two campsites. They will be worn down without being subject to any extra repair work.

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  • Thanks! I started finding similar news about four police stations with campsites, all in Taitung area, after posting the question and persevering with Google Translate. I'm still not unsure if they existed beyond Taitung though. I thought people had said there were many, but can't find evidence of that on the web.
    – hippietrail
    Jan 13, 2019 at 0:34
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    @hippietrail I had a look on the linked website again, and found some of them (around 10, dotted around the island) with the annotation "Close to police station X", but not operated by the police station. Perhaps that's where the confusion coming from?
    – B.Liu
    Jan 13, 2019 at 8:49

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