Day 2: 12 May 2023, Friday
For our second day in Taipei, we had a full day free so we decided to visit Shifen (十分) and Jiufen (九份), two of the most popular day trip destinations located on the outskirts of the city. We woke up at 7am but lay in bed until we could no longer laze around and finally dragged ourselves up. The temperature outside was a cool 24 degrees C, with the weather forecasted to be mostly cloudy for the day. At 8:35am, we headed out from our Waterfront Hotel at Songshan and searched for a place for breakfast. We found a small eatery called Yong He Soy Milk King (永和豆漿大王) and decided to have our breakfast there.
There are many eateries in Taipei called Yong He selling soy milk, and there is even one in Singapore with the same name. This Yong He eatery we went to was quite authentic in the sense that it was very traditional and no-frills. We ordered the typical Taiwanese breakfast fare – soy milk, you tiao (油條), carrot cake (蘿蔔糕) and some fried pancake (煎餅). The bill amounted to NT$240 (S$10.56) for the three of us. It was simple but delicious.
After breakfast, we walked over to Songshan Station (松山車站) to check out the meeting point for our bicycle tour tomorrow. It wasn’t hard to find, as there was a 0km marker and a Cycling Route No. 1 Start Point sign in front of the station. Just seeing the signs excited us. We looked at the map of Taiwan and the round-the-island (RTI) route that we would be taking over the next nine days of cycling. It was going to be an epic adventure and we couldn’t wait to get started tomorrow!
While we were there, we met Yoshi, a fellow cyclist from Japan who would be joining our RTI adventure. Like us, Yoshi was there to recce the meeting point. He told us that he is over 60 years old and he joined the tour as a solo member. He would be taking the e-bike option. We really admired his gung-ho spirit to join the tour alone. This proves that age is not an excuse, just go for it if you really want it!
From Songshan Station, we booked an Uber car to take us to Shifen. We left Taipei city at 9:40am and arrived at the entrance to Shifen Waterfall at 10:47am. The fare was NT$1,220 (S$53.68). It was pretty expensive but it was the most time- and cost-efficient way to get there. You can go by train but it involves switching trains and quite a bit of travelling time. Bus is the cheapest mode of transport but it takes around 2½ hours. Thus, Uber was the best option for us.
Shifen is located about 30km east of Taipei city, not too far away but the journey is quite long because of Taipei’s terrain. Taipei City is located in the Taipei Basin, surrounded by mountains all around. Moving out of the city towards the east, we travelled across highways and tunnels through the mountains. We also took a small, winding mountain road where we barely encountered any other vehicles. The drive was scenic and we had a good chat with the driver along the way so the one hour passed by quickly. Our driver was a retired trading manager and he openly shared his views about the current state of affairs in Taiwan. Our driver dropped us at Lane 392, Section 3, Jing’An Road, which is closer to the waterfall compared to the main entrance at Shifen Visitor Centre.
Entry to Shifen Waterfall (十分大瀑布) is free. From the entrance, we walked past some food stalls before we reached the Guanpu suspension bridge (觀瀑吊橋). The Pingxi (平溪) railway line also runs parallel to the suspension bridge across Keelung River. After crossing the suspension bridge, we walked for another five minutes before we reached the waterfall observation area.
There are many viewing platforms offering great views of Shifen Waterfall. The first one is right beside the waterfall, giving you close up views of the cascading waters. However, the best views are to be found at the viewing platforms further away. We went to all of them, marvelling at the waterfall from different angles while taking lots of pictures.
Shifen Waterfall is nicknamed “Taiwan’s Niagara Falls” because it has a similar curtain and ledge appearance, but it is much smaller in scale. Shifen Waterfall is 20m high and 40m wide, making it Taiwan’s widest waterfall. The entire area surrounding the waterfall is covered with lush green vegetation, creating a relaxing ambience amid a stunning backdrop. Unlike the real Niagara Falls, Shifen Waterfall is far from being overly commercialised, without any of the hotels or skyscrapers surrounding it or boat tours bringing tourists up close to the falls. I prefer it like that because it is much more natural. I enjoyed the experience very much.
After about half an hour, we left Shifen Waterfall and backtracked our way out. Instead of going back to the Jing’An Road entrance (where we came from), we turned left after crossing the Guanpu suspension bridge and took another path that led us to Siguangtan suspension bridge (四廣潭吊橋). The bridge was very old, but the Shifen Visitor Centre across the bridge was even older. The building was dilapidated and appeared deserted, not an image you would expect from a visitor centre. From there, we walked for about 15 minutes and reached Shifen Old Street (十分老街).
Compared to the waterfall, Shifen Old Street is much more crowded and commercialised. The main activity hub is centred around a stretch of shops where the Pingxi railway line runs through. The railway line was originally built by the Japanese in 1918 to transport coal from mines in the Pingxi valley. Coal mining in the area ended in 1971 and the small mining towns like Shifen started to become tourist attractions.
Shifen is most well-known for its sky lanterns. The practice of releasing sky lanterns originated from China, where villagers sent lanterns into the sky to signal and inform the people living in the mountains that it was safe from bandits or any form of danger. As the lanterns ascended high into the sky, the practice gradually evolved into writing wishes on the lanterns to be sent to the gods above.
The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival started in 1999 and it takes place on the 15th day of the first lunar month, which coincides with Yuan Xiao Jie, the end of the lunar new year. It has become one of the most highly anticipated events for locals and tourists. Every year, thousands of people descend onto three towns in the Pingxi district to take part in the festival – Jingtong, Pingxi and Shifen. The main lantern release takes place at Shifen. During the festival, thousands of sky lanterns will be released into the night sky, carrying the wishes of the people to the gods above. I’m sure it is a sight to behold.
Throughout the year, people can also release sky lanterns here at Shifen. The Old Street is filled with shops providing sky lanterns services. For NT$250 (S$11), you can have a regular 4-coloured lantern, including photo-taking by the staff. If you want a fancier 8-coloured lantern, that will cost you NT$350 (S$15.40).
The lanterns are usually made of rice paper and a bamboo frame containing a small candle. Even though they are biodegradable, the lanterns end up being litter when they fall to the ground. The lanterns also pose a significant fire hazard and the frames can be dangerous to wild animals and livestock. Hence, the practice of releasing sky lanterns is quite environmentally-unfriendly so we didn’t do it.
Regardless, most of the tourists who came to Shifen did it anyway and they gathered on the railway track to release the lanterns. The trains on the Pingxi line run roughly only once an hour, so the railway track is usually empty and it is safe to stand on the tracks. In any case, there will be someone who will blow a whistle if a train is approaching soon, and alert everyone to clear the tracks. While we were there, it was indeed quite a spectacle to see the numerous lanterns being released and floating off into the heavens above. I hope all their wishes get fulfilled.
After taking many photos and videos of the sky lanterns, we continued walking along the tracks and soon reached Shifen Station (十分車站). The railway station was also very old and basic. We didn’t need to buy a train ticket because we each had an EasyCard with us. EasyCards are stored value cards that can be used to pay for public transport and for purchases at many retail shops across Taiwan. There were no gantries at Shifen Station so all we needed to do was to tap our EasyCards at the blue-and-white card reader machine located at the entrance of the platform (and tap out after alighting, of course).
Luckily for us, we didn’t have to wait very long for the train. If we missed it, we would have to wait for an hour for the next one. The train arrived at Platform 1 at 12:31pm, 8 minutes before its departure from Shifen, so there was plenty of time for people to board.
The train’s appearance looked rather old but it was very nice inside. Instead of individual plastic seats, there were two rows of long cushioned benches facing each other along the length of the carriage. In the middle of the carriage was a moon gate, a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens. I thought this feature inside a train was super cool! Best of all, the windows were huge, which was great because the ride was very scenic. The train ran alongside the river and we passed by valleys with lots of greenery. I love taking trains and the ride on the Pingxi line was so enjoyable.
There is no direct train service to Jiufen so we took the train from Shifen and alighted at Ruifang (瑞芳), four stops away. The ride took 31 minutes and we arrived at 1:10pm. The train fare was only NT$17 (S$0.75). From Ruifang Station, we crossed the road, turned left and walked to a bus stop about 200m away. The bus stop is next to the police station.
As soon as we reached the bus stop, the blue-coloured Keelung Bus number 1062 arrived. Besides 1062, you can also take bus numbers 788, 856 and 965 to Jiufen. We left the Ruifang bus stop at 1:29pm and alighted at Jiufen at 1:38pm. The bus fare was only NT$15 (S$0.66).
In all, we spent NT$32 (S$1.41) and one hour to travel by train and bus from Shifen to Jiufen. Earlier at Shifen, we had enquired with a taxi driver and he quoted us NT$1,000 (S$44) for a ride to Jiufen. Therefore, you can save a lot of money by taking public transport instead of a private taxi. The route is very scenic and easy to manage, so don’t take a taxi from Shifen to Jiufen unless you really need to!
Jiufen literally means “nine portions” in Chinese, and it got its name because during the early Qing Dynasty, this isolated mountain village hosted nine families. Thus, the village would request “nine portions” each time shipments arrived from town, and gradually the village became known as Jiufen.
Where Shifen was once associated with the coal mining industry, Jiufen was associated with the gold mining industry. The late 19th century saw the start of gold mining operations in Jiufen, and the gold rush sped up the development of Jiufen from a village into a town. Gold mining reached a peak during the Japanese era (1895 to 1945) and declined after World War II. The mine was closed in 1971 and Jiufen went into decline.
Jiufen was mostly forgotten until 1989 when the Taiwanese film A City of Sadness (悲情城市) starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, became a big hit. The film was filmed in Jiufen and the nostalgic scenes revived the interest of the locals and led to the opening of many retro Chinese-style cafes, tea houses and souvenir shops. Another wave of popularity came after the release of the Japanese anime movie Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki in 2001, due to the resemblance of Jiufen to the setting in the movie. Today, the revival is complete and Jiufen attracts hordes of tourists as well as locals, especially during the weekends.
Jiufen Old Street (九份老街) is a narrow alleyway lined with shops and eateries selling all kinds of street food. It was crowded when we were there but there was still enough space to walk and look at all the different things on sale. There was so much to see I didn’t know where to look! It was touristy but the shops were very interesting and well varied, selling many food items I had never seen before. Everything looked so good it was hard to decide what to eat. After a quick survey of the stalls, we decided to have our lunch at a small eatery called Fishball Bozai 魚丸伯仔. The shop wasn’t very big and it was packed but the turnover was pretty fast.
As its name suggests, the shop is famous for its fishballs. In fact, they only have three items on their menu – fishball soup (魚丸湯), stuffed beancurd aka tau kwa bao (豆乾包) and dry glass noodles (乾冬粉). We ordered the set, which comprises the three items. The set costs NT$105 (S$4.62). I am normally not a fishball person but the ones here were really good. They were starchier than the springy ones we are accustomed to at home, but very tasty. The beancurd was stuffed with minced meat and it was yummy. The reason why it’s so good is because everything is hand made fresh daily. It was a simple meal but really delicious.
Next, it was time for coffee. We saw this really interesting shop selling ice drip coffee where there was a drip tower with three glass vessels. The top vessel contained large, melting ice blocks; the second one held freshly ground coffee; and the last one at the bottom caught the cold dripped coffee. I bought a cup for NT$100 (S$4.40) to try. To my untrained taste buds, it didn’t taste any different from the regular iced coffee but it was really more for the novelty I guess.
With all the food surrounding us, we couldn’t just stop at coffee, so we searched for something sweet to complete our lunch. We found it in A-Zhu Peanut Ice Cream Roll (阿珠雪在燒). I have tried peanut ice-cream roll before at Shilin Night Market during my first visit to Taipei in 2016 and I loved it. You can’t really go wrong with peanut and ice-cream, can you?
For this snack, the peanut is freshly grated from a huge block of peanut brittle, then placed onto a spring roll wrapper/skin. Add in two scoops of ice-cream and a sprinkle of coriander leaves before everything is wrapped up into a burrito-like roll. I am not a fan of coriander so I requested for mine to be coriander-free. The resulting concoction was simply heavenly.
With our tummies filled, we spent the rest of the time browsing the stalls and window shopping. I must say I really liked the vibes at Jiufen Old Street. Despite the crowds and abundance of souvenir shops, it still felt intimate without being too commercialised. The narrow winding lanes and the irregular layout added to the charm of the place, making it feel as if the shops sprung up haphazardly and organically without much planning.
What makes Jiufen so special and beautiful is its mountainside location near the sea. As we walked further away from the main shopping street, we encountered many small inns perched on the hillside offering spectacular views of the sea. They looked really cosy. The quieter lanes had many nooks and crannies and they were very charming. We also walked past some old residential areas where no two houses looked alike. I wondered if people still lived in them.
We eventually found our way back to the main action area after walking through the maze of lanes and alleyways. We found ourselves at Shengping Theater (昇平戲院), an important entertainment venue for the gold miners in the past. Red lanterns strung across the buildings, which bore traditional Chinese architectural designs, giving it a blast-from-the-past feel. The Chinese characters 九份 were imprinted on the red lanterns, creating a picturesque backdrop.
The crowds reached a maximum at A Mei Tea House (阿妹茶樓), perhaps the most famous and photographed of all the tea houses in Jiufen. Originally a blacksmith shop run by A Mei’s grandfather who made tools for local miners, A Mei transformed the shop into a tea house when tourism picked up. Its strategic location provided mountain and sea views from every table, making it the top choice for visitors from near and afar.
We saw a cave-like entrance right next to A Mei Tea House and decided to pop in to see where it led to. The stone tunnel was very narrow with low headroom and dimly-lit. It felt like we were walking through a secret passage and something exciting lay ahead. When we climbed up the final steps, we emerged into the sunshine and Yu Zai Fan Shu Tea House (芋仔蕃薯茶樓) greeted us. It was one of those lovely little surprises waiting to be discovered in Jiufen Old Town.
However, we decided to patronise another tea house instead, and settled on Skyline Tea House (海悅樓), which was opposite A Mei and much less crowded. When we were there at 3:45pm, there weren’t many people yet so we chose an outdoor table, which had a nice view of A Mei Tea House and Mount Keelung. Upon the staff’s recommendation, we selected Pao Chung Tea (文山包種茶) as our Taiwan tea of choice. A packet of the tea leaves cost NT$400, with additional charges of NT$100 per person for hot water.
As we were newbies, we got the female staff member to explain the art of tea drinking. She taught us how to wash the cups and tea leaves before serving the tea for drinking, and how much time to let the tea leaves steep with each round of topping up the hot water. She also showed us how to hold the cup the right way. It was all very refined and methodical, and I loved the experience. We spent a good one hour sipping tea, admiring the scenery and chit chatting. No better way to spend an afternoon at Jiufen.
At 5pm, we left Skyline Tea House and walked to the bus stop to catch the bus back to Ruifang. At 5:18pm, we boarded the same blue Keelung Bus service 1062 to Ruifang. From there, we took the train directly to Songshan, where we alighted at 6:28pm. I was quite tired so I didn’t even take any photos or notes for this leg of the journey. From Songshan station, we walked back to our hotel for a quick freshening up before heading out again at 7:05pm. It was drizzling earlier but the rain stopped so it was nice and cool.
We walked to Wufenpu (五分埔) Fashion Clothing Area, about 15 minutes away. This is the wholesale clothing district, with hundreds of shops lining the streets, selling mostly female fashion clothing. It’s like a more organised version of Bangkok’s Pratunam Market. There wasn’t anything suitable for us guys so we didn’t buy anything.
We searched for a place for dinner but there were no proper restaurants so we left at 7:35pm and walked to the nearby CITYLINK mall at Songshan Station. There were many restaurants here but they all had queues because it was Friday evening. Feeling hungry and slightly exasperated at the situation, we settled for something easy and went to MOS Burger for a quick meal.
After dinner, we went to the Tsutaya Bookstore upstairs to browse before walking back to Raohe Night Market at 9:20pm. We bought sweet potato balls (地瓜球) and some snacks to munch on, because…how can you not eat anything when you’re at a Taiwan night market? We also tried our hands at playing an old-school pinball/slot machine, which was great fun.
At 10pm, we left Raohe and were back in our hotel room 10 minutes later. It had been a long day out but a very productive and enjoyable one. I really liked Shifen Waterfall and the maze-like alleys of Jiufen Old Town. The scenic train ride from Shifen to Ruifang was a highlight in itself. It was a good decision to visit Shifen and Jiufen, places I had never been before. Ok, one more sleep before our adventure begins tomorrow, excited!
In the meantime, here are the video highlights of Day 1 and 2 in Taipei: