In Japan, abandoned infrastructure is known as haikyo (廃墟) (literally “ruins”), but the term is synonymous with the practice of urban exploration. Although targets of exploration vary from one country to another, high-profile abandonments include amusement parks, grain elevators, factories, power plants, missile silos, fallout shelters, hospitals, asylums, schools, poor houses, and sanatoriums. At times, sites are entered first by locals and may suffer from large amounts of graffiti and other acts of vandalism, while other locations may be better preserved. Ventures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of urban exploration. Visitors to ghost towns and abandoned structures inevitably wonder what these places must have been like in their heyday. Infiltration is popular too for thrill seeking, but is more valued for aesthetic and other pleasures that would otherwise be off-limits. Many explorers find the forgotten, abandoned, and otherwise undiscovered places to have a certain beauty not to be found elsewhere-hence the popularity with photographers and fans of architecture. Urbex opens up a whole new field of sightseeing, and makes for good stories. Novelty, thrill seeking, boredom, and photography are the main reasons urbex expeditions occur. However, many individuals and organizations involved in the genuine research, documentation and recording of older (and abandoned) buildings, works and infrastructure strongly advocate against “casual” urbex, preferring that those who are interested join specialist organizations that have built up appropriate access procedures and goodwill with site owners. Although some urban exploration does indeed occur in areas that are legally off-limits, few “practitioners” would ever recommend that you do this. Whilst urbex has gained a notorious reputation of being illegal (such as requiring by definition trespassing), the bulk of exploration happens in places no-one cares about (which explains both their abandonment and/or the fact that no-one bothered to lock them up or even post a no trespassing sign). Virtually any building can be an infiltration “destination”, but the most popular are architecturally interesting commercial buildings, industrial sites and hotels. Infiltration, which involves exploring used/inhabited (but not necessarily public) areas, is often lumped in with urbex, but it tends to attract a different crowd. Urbex is most commonly understood as the exploration of parts of cities that no-one visits, be it abandoned buildings, steam tunnels, metro systems, or even dangerous underground locations such as sewers. Some activities associated with urban exploration violate local or regional laws and certain broadly interpreted anti-terrorism laws, or can be considered trespassing or invasion of privacy. The nature of this activity presents various risks, including both physical danger and, if done illegally and/or without permission, the possibility of arrest and punishment. Urban exploration may also be referred to as draining (a specific form of urban exploration where storm drains or sewers are explored), urban spelunking, urban rock climbing, urban caving, building hacking, or mousing. Photography and historical interest/documentation are heavily featured in the hobby and, although it may sometimes involve trespassing onto private property, this is not always the case. Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof-and-tunnel hacking) is the exploration of man-made structures, usually abandoned ruins or not usually seen components of the man-made environment. Urbex, or Urban Exploring, is the exploration of abandoned and non-public urban locations.
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