Jiufen One Day Trip

The day started with going on a train ride to Ruifang area so we can go to Jiufeng and Jinguashi. It was quite interesting taking the local train.... it took a while! But nevertheless... we got to the destination.

Once we got to Jinguashi, it was a lot of sightseeing and unforeseen climbing experience. Yes. Climbing or hiking. I think the difference between Taiwanese hiking and American hiking is that American hiking is mostly slopes that you have to climb up, and Taiwanese people says "that takes too long.... here, climb some stairs". It was sweating like it's raining halfway through the hikes. Not to mention that it's super hot!

But anyways, lets see some beautiful sceneries around Jiufeng.

So the reason it's called Jinguashi is that they used to have a lot of coal mining there so they can extract the gold from there. And so they have some areas and museums to commemorate that. Just for future reference, they have this museum set that you can visit for 80 NTD and they also have this additional coal mining experience (you get to go into a refurbished coal mine) for 50 NTD. We bought both, but seriously, only the coal mining was worth the money. The 80 NTD museums were quite lame...

Here's inside that coal mining experience. It's quite cool.... you have to wear a hard hat and all that and climb and down the tunnel.

The reason the 80 NTD museum was not worth the time is that they were mostly design exhibits from clothing or accessory designers. It's like.... ummmmmmm... that's marginally related to the area. There were also some relics as part of the museum, but still, just not worth the 80 NTD. However, the most interesting one inside the 80 NTD museum is this huge solid gold. It also says how much it's worth in NTD.

The most epic thing I did was climbing up all these stairs to get to the Shinto Shrine that was leftover when the Japanese was mining in the area. It was really really hard.... and I think it has something to do with the elevation too...

There was one tori on the way up and one tori at the top. It would have been pretty creepy if I had went by myself, but Amy was with me that day.... so it made it better. But oh man, there were tons of stairs!! My knees were shaking by the time I made it down.... I'm not so good at going down the staircases...

After this, we went to Jiufeng, the famous alley with lots of food and souvenirs for you to buy and the picturesque area for photoshoots. There were so many Japanese and Korean travelers that we felt like we were back into the country we just came from (Amy is from Japan).

Let's start with the scenery pictures and we'll migrate to food pictures!

Pretty right? Now for the food pictures....

I got this burrito looking thing with ice cream and peanut shavings in it. Mmm... not bad, but not exceptional for me.

And then we got fresh guava juice. Mmm..... could be a bit sweeter and less watered down.

And then we got the famous taro balls and sweet potato balls from this place. I would say that they do have the best starch balls... but they could modify their ice shaving a bit....

And then it's a long bus ride back to Taipei area. We stopped at Songshan area so we can go to Raohe night market.

This is a huge temple right outside the night market! I was so shocked!

First thing first, gotta get the pepper pancake thing. Now, the famous one is right at the entrance to the night market.... however! There is another cart right before it, which I thought was the real one.... and I bought it. I don't think their meat was fully cooked o_O. Eek! I didn't know the real one was right inside! Bleh. So yeah, I went and spent money again on the real one... the line was quite long.

Good stuff... but very hot! They took it right out of the oven when you buy it... so be super careful!

Next, I got some wintermelon tea. Not bad, not bad.

I think we were all quite full, so the only thing I got after that were these mochis..

Yeah, I know we're not really living to our fullest inside the night market, but hey, you just cannot keep stuffing yourself with food right?

Here are some random pictures of the night market....

Totoro and Spirited Away galore!

What?! Cute shapes of cotton candy!? Too bad I don't like cotton candy.... or I might have gotten it.

And nostalgia..... pin ball machine. I don't think I've ever gotten any kind of good gifts from it.

There is this nearby Rainbow Bridge so we quickly went to check it out and take some pictures.

They probably could develop it more like what they did on Han River.... especially since there is a night market right outside of it, they should have more people just sitting there and eating.

That's it folks!