Chi Po-lin
30-second overview: A clerk at Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation used his NT$3 million savings plus a NT$6 million mortgage to buy NT$30 million worth of aerial photography equipment, creating "Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above," which earned NT$220 million at the box office. He spent over 400 hours flying in helicopters and died doing what he loved most—crashing while location scouting for "Beyond Beauty Taiwan II" on June 10, 2017, at age 52.
How does a government clerk who can't afford helicopters on his salary mortgage his house to create Taiwan's most successful documentary?
On June 10, 2017, at 11:54 AM, a helicopter with registration B-31118 crashed in the mountains near Changhong Bridge in Fengbin Township, Hualien. All three people on board were killed, including 52-year-old Chi Po-lin. Scattered around his body were millions of dollars worth of 6K professional camera equipment—the same gear that had captured Taiwan's most beautiful faces and witnessed his final flight.
💡 Did you know
Chi Po-lin's name coincidentally matches the Zeppelin airship, but this was pure chance. His father chose the name without knowing about Zeppelin aircraft.
From Highway Engineering to Sky Dreams
Born in Keelung in 1964, Chi Po-lin started as an ordinary civil servant. In 1990, he joined the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation as an administrative staff member, responsible for documenting the construction of National Highway No. 3. This job was stable with guaranteed benefits—exactly what Taiwanese parents considered an "iron rice bowl."
The turning point came in 1991. To document highway construction, Chi Po-lin took his first helicopter ride for aerial photography. When the helicopter rose to 500 feet, Taiwan looked completely different—winding coastlines, layered mountains, and scars invisible from ground level.
"That moment I truly 'saw' Taiwan," he later recalled.
But the bureau only had a 20-hour annual aerial photography budget, far from satisfying Chi Po-lin's hunger for the sky. Helicopter rentals cost over NT$100,000 per hour, impossible on his civil servant salary. So he began "catching rides"—when weather bureau helicopters changed shifts, when forestry bureau aircraft sprayed pesticides, when Taiwan Power Company lifted equipment. Whenever there was a chance, he'd bring his camera along.
After gaining recognition from the first bureau director Ou Jin-de, Chi Po-lin officially took charge of aerial documentation of major construction projects, beginning a 20-plus year aerial photography career. Construction company owner Huang Mu-shou even let him ride helicopters free of charge multiple times, supporting his aerial photography dreams.
⚠️ Controversial viewpoint
Chi Po-lin faced criticism for purchasing expensive aerial photography equipment with public funds during his civil service, but supporters argue these investments left Taiwan with invaluable landscape records.
A Job of Life and Death
Aerial photography was never romantic work—every takeoff was a life-or-death gamble.
Chi Po-lin once encountered falling winds in the Dawu Mountain area of Pingtung, with the helicopter blown by strong winds to Taimali beach, nearly losing control. Near Jade Mountain's main peak, sub-zero temperatures at 4,000 meters turned his hands purple; in strong unstable airflow, he had to support his body with one hand while holding heavy cameras with the other. "I was exhausted for two whole days afterward," he said. Downdrafts near Taipei's Qiguzui Mountain also nearly caused crashes.
"Every flight is a matter of life and death," Chi Po-lin admitted. But what pained him more was the scenery before his eyes: Taiwan's beauty and trauma existing side by side. Dense illegal constructions, scarred mountaintops, polluted rivers.
"I was constantly sighing in the aircraft!" Chi Po-lin said. "Photography speed couldn't keep up with development speed."
The NT$9 Million Gamble
In 2009, the devastation following Typhoon Morakot convinced Chi Po-lin: still photos weren't enough to make people feel the crisis Taiwan's land was facing. He wanted to shoot Taiwan's first aerial documentary.
This was a gamble with no guarantees. He took out his NT$3 million savings and mortgaged his house for another NT$6 million loan to purchase NT$30 million worth of professional aerial equipment. His wife complained he was spending their savings on "this hobby with no future," and his son once wondered if his father could still afford to support his education.
In November 2009, he founded Above Taiwan Cinema, with "Above" symbolizing his devotion to the sky.
Filming "Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above" took three years and cost NT$90 million, accumulating 400 hours of helicopter flight time. Chi Po-lin insisted on pointing many lenses at environmental destruction—industrial pollution, illegal land development, soil erosion.
"This will make audiences feel too heavy," many worried about this footage. But Chi Po-lin insisted: "Images speak for themselves, no need for words. Anyone who sees them will understand the danger."
📝 Curator's note
Chi Po-lin once said that in life-threatening moments, he only feared camera equipment falling, not his personal safety. This sounds exaggerated, but those who knew him knew it was true—the images in his cameras were more precious to him than life itself.
The NT$220 Million Miracle
On November 1, 2013, "Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above" officially premiered. No one anticipated what would happen next.
The first weekend broke NT$10 million, becoming Taiwan's highest-grossing documentary opening; after 29 days in theaters, it broke NT$100 million; on January 5, 2014, after 66 days in release, it surpassed NT$200 million, ultimately reaching NT$220 million—a shocking figure that set Taiwan documentary box office records.
"Beyond Beauty" wasn't just a commercial success but also won the Best Documentary Award at the 50th Golden Horse Awards and the Golden Sun Award at the 21st International Green Film Festival. DVD sales exceeded 30,000 copies, with over 1,000 schools purchasing public screening rights.
But success brought not only praise but also pressure and danger.
The film exposed issues like Advanced Semiconductor Engineering's wastewater discharge into Kaohsiung's Houjin Creek, illegal guesthouses at Cingjing Farm, and Asia Cement's marble mining in Hualien's Taroko. Chi Po-lin's aerial footage of Asia Cement's mining area showed shocking bare mountain peaks completely hollowed out. After the film's release, the government began paying attention to environmental issues, but some companies and businesses faced investigations, leading to online threats against Chi Po-lin's personal safety.
In 2017, Chi Po-lin flew over the Asia Cement mining area again, taking photos and lamenting that it was "dug deeper than when filming 'Beyond Beauty' five years ago." After his death, these photos surfaced, and petitions against Asia Cement's mining permit extension surged from 42,000 to over 200,000 signatures in just three days.
✦ "Taiwan is so beautiful, it's worth recording with my life."
The Final Flight
On June 8, 2017, Chi Po-lin held the opening ceremony for "Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above II." He hoped to expand beyond Taiwan to trace the Austronesian origins of Taiwan's indigenous peoples through mainland China, Japan, Malaysia, and as far as New Zealand, awakening the sleeping "adventure DNA" in Taiwanese blood.
Two days later, at dawn, Chi Po-lin boarded a helicopter from Hualien Airport for his third aerial reconnaissance trip. The aircraft carried his latest 6K camera equipment, specially purchased for the new film.
| 10:45 | 11:54 |
|---|---|
| Took off from Chishang Falin Temple | Lost contact with ground |
At 10:45 AM, the helicopter took off from Chishang, heading to Yuli, Ruisui, and Fengbin areas for aerial operations. At 11:54 AM, the aircraft lost contact with ground control. Investigation found that the cause included pilot Zhang Zhiguang's use of antihistamine medication affecting his reactions, overwork from three flights the previous day, and possible mechanical failure.
Hualien County Fire Department arrived at the scene at 12:21 PM, using three water lines to extinguish the fire, but all three people on board had died. When Chi Po-lin's body was found, his million-dollar camera equipment was scattered nearby.
For Chi Po-lin, these technical details no longer mattered—he left this world doing what he loved most.
A Legacy Beyond Life
Chi Po-lin's death shocked all of Taiwanese society. President Tsai Ing-wen personally awarded a presidential citation, praising his contributions in "presenting Taiwan's landscape beauty through aerial perspectives, exposing pollution and environmental destruction, revealing developmental changes, and awakening public awareness of land conservation." The Air Force dispatched a C-130 transport aircraft to help transport his remains, with honor guards saluting him at Songshan Airport.
He left behind not just hundreds of thousands of aerial photographs, but a spiritual legacy:
- Asteroid 281068 was named after him
- Newly discovered species—the Chi Po-lin's new sharp-fronted crab and Chi Po-lin's gill polychaete—bear his name
- The first satellite of the Formosat-8 constellation was named the Chi Po-lin satellite
In 2018, the Chi Po-lin Aerial Photography Foundation was officially established, inheriting Chi Po-lin's 600,000 aerial images and nearly 1,000 hours of video records, dedicated to digital archiving and training the next generation of aerial photographers. In 2019, "Chi Po-lin Space" was established in Tamsui to continue promoting his photographic works.
"Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above II" was ultimately completed by other directors. Although Chi Po-lin couldn't see it himself, his spirit was deeply imprinted in this work.
📝 Curator's note
From an administrative clerk at the Ministry of Transportation's highway bureau to Taiwan's most famous aerial photographer, Chi Po-lin proved one thing over 26 years: when you truly love something, the entire universe conspires to help you achieve your dreams—even if the price is life itself.
From a civil servant's NT$3 million savings to a NT$220 million box office miracle, from a 20-hour annual budget to accumulating 400 hours of sky flights, Chi Po-lin demonstrated through action that love can make an ordinary person make extraordinary choices.
Whenever we look up at the sky, we can imagine that figure flying among the clouds and the land he protected with his life. He once said: "You must have adventure factors in your blood!" Today, these words have become one of Taiwan's most precious spiritual legacies.
References
- Chi Po-lin (Taiwan) - Wikipedia
- Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above - Wikipedia
- Chi Po-lin's "Beyond Beauty" breaks NT$220 million at box office, wins Golden Horse Best Documentary - China Times
- Chi Po-lin helicopter crash investigation released - The News Lens
- Gallery: Reviewing five major issues through Chi Po-lin's lens - The News Lens
- 2017 凌天航空 Helicopter Accident - Wikipedia
- Chi Po-lin Aerial Photography Foundation
- 50th Golden Horse Awards - Wikipedia