Taipei 2014: Day 3 Part 2 (Shifen - Jiufen)

This post continues from my previous post Taipei 2014: Day 3 Part 1 (Taipei Main Station - Ruifang - Jiufen)

Once we put down our bags, and grabbed our necessities, we decided to head off to Shifen. The original plan was to board the 1062 heading in the opposite direction from which we came, then alight at Ruifang station, and take the train to Shifen.

MISTAKE A: we walked all the way back up to the Jiufen old street area to board the bus when we could have boarded the bus from somewhat right outside our minsu.
MISTAKE B: After all that time waiting for the hotel check-in time, we actually had not much time left to head to Shifen. I was so tired I was even contemplating not going anymore, but the travel mate said that since we were already here we should go anyway.Remember to check with your minsu owners if its okay to leave your belongings there first while you explore, they are usually really nice so they should be cool with it. I read on many other bloggers pages that they too had plans ruined because of this check-in situation.
MISTAKE C: We neglected to consider that the bus would be as crowded as when we came, and true enough it was. After painstakingly making our way to the bus stop up top, we couldn't board the bus. We wanted to take a cab instead, but many were unwilling to take us unless we paid a little more, since we did not hire them for a full day's activities.

By our sheer luck, we managed to flag down a cab driver who was willing to take us to Shifen Old Street. On the way there, he agreed to take us to Shifen Old Street and back to our Jiufen minsu for a slightly lower price than pacakge B (this is because it is impossible to get taxi drivers at Shifen - most of them are already attached to customers who booked them under travel packages which you can get at Ruifang Station.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOURIST TIP:
if you're thinking of spending a day's worth of activities in Jiufen, Shifen, and Jinguashi; there are taxi packages which you can get from cab drivers outside Ruifang Station.

Packaged destinations:

Package A (NT$1,000)
Ruifang Railway Station (瑞芳火车站), Nanya Rocks(南雅奇石), Yin Yang Sea (阴阳海), Thirteen Level Refining (十三层遗址), Gold Waterfall (黃金瀑布), Jiufen Old Street (九份老街)

Package B (NT$2,300)
Ruifang Railway Station (瑞芳火车站), Jiufen Old Street (九份老街), Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布), Shifen Old Street (十分老街), Taipei (台北)

Package C (NT$2,000)
Ruifang Railway Station (瑞芳火车站), Jiufen Old Street (九份老街), Yehliu Geopark (野柳风景区)

Package D (NT$2,800)
Ruifang Railway Station (瑞芳火车站), Nanya Rocks(南雅奇石), Yin Yang Sea (阴阳海), Thirteen Level Refining (十三层遗址), Gold Waterfall (黃金瀑布), Jiufen Old Street (九份老街), Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布), Shifen Old Street (十分老街), Taipei (台北)

*Prices for reference only. Check the prices when you are there.

P.S. All prices are fixed on a laminated sheet all over, so they can't cheat you, and neither can you bargain. In my opinion, it is quite a win-win situation especially if you don't speak mandarin.

P.S. 2: Like in Package B and D where they return you to Taipei, bear in mind that Taipei is a really huge place, so some taxi drivers may ask you to pay them more if you aren't asking them to drop you off in central Taipei. Make sure you check with the taxi driver first!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trip from Jiufen up to Shifen is winding, so if you do get motion sickness easily, I recommend that you try to sleep, otherwise motion sickness will hit you real hard, like a slap to face.

Upon getting out of the taxi, our driver gave us an hour or so to go release the lanterns and explore the street while he waited outside along with all the other cab drivers. He told us to take a picture of his plate number so we would remember which cab was his.

LANTERN TIME! Most of the stalls have the same price, so it is really up to you which shop you want to pick. We chose this stall because it looked the most 'decent' and 'legit' (if that makes sense?). Since they were all the same price, may as well do it in comfort.

You can choose if you would like to have your lantern with no colour (meaning white), 1 colour (since different colours have different significance), 4 colours (see photo below: the first 4 colours in a set, or the bottom 4) or even 8 colours; of course, each with its own varying price.

If you can read Mandarin and Korean, these are what the different colours represent.
RED - luck, ORANGE - success, BLUE - peace, GREEN - health, MAGENTA - social relations, YELLOW - wealth, PURPLE - career/knowledge/wisdom, PINK - love.

Many youngsters came here to write their wishes and release their lantern.

We went to Ah Ma's Sky Lantern 阿嬤天燈 (Ah Ma means granny in dialect) to have our lantern's released. Everyone in that shop can speak mandarin, or understands basic english. There are signs in the shop with English instructions as well.

Its been a while since I wrote mandarin, and with the lanterns hanging at that angle, it isn't easy to write with a calligraphy brush.

The shop owners only provide photography services when its time to release the lantern on the tracks. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE PHOTOS BECAUSE THEY ARE SO EXPERIENCED THEY DO A REALLY GOOD JOB! =)

OH WHEN YOU'RE THERE:
don't forget to buy some cute sky lantern souvenirs!

Photo taken from Spunktitud3!

These are really cute and interesting souvenirs, with well wishes attached as well! One costs about NTD50, while glow in the dark ones cost NTD100 (thereabouts I hope prices don't change too much).

P.S: another tourist tip - if you're thinking of buying many of these, let your taxi driver know! Our cab driver told us later that he knew of a place that sold these on the cheap.
This particular shop gave us one free for 20 we bought.

THEN IT WAS TIME TO GO BACK TO JIUFEN =)
---------------------------------------------------------------

Our cab driver returned us to our minsu so that we could catch the sunset: since most of the shops in Jiufen were closed by now anyway.

Those land masses are from Keelung City, which looks really pretty at night!

Then we decided to go explore the night view of Jiufen - cos I pressured the travel mate to go. Seeing the Jiufen streets was my main goal. I wanted to see how similar the scenes of Spirited Away looked like to the streets of Jiufen.

Still pretty packed despite most stalls being shut for the day.

Photo at the iconic Shuqi Road made of stairs!

Sense any similarities? I think Hayao Miyazaki really captured the night atmosphere of Jiufen well!

I didn't see anything that looked much like this in Jiufen, but this feeling you get just looking at the photo: its the same sensation as walking through Jiufen.

Hayao Miyazaki's drawing of the Bath House in Spirited Away - inspired by the structure of Ah Mei Teahouse in Jiufen. Compare this with the photo below.

Excuse the fact that i'm not a good photographer - but I think, he did a pretty good job.
BTW: Our cabby told is not to visit this Teahouse because they charge a lot. The staff aren't friendly either.

Exhausted from exploring, we returned to our minsu to rest - not before we stopped by the convenience store to grab snacks and dinner!

Night view of Keelung City from the Minsu - along with some dude checking out his car

This was my dinner - because I was too tired to eat! Pretty yummy - while I watched Tin Tin on the telly!

---------------------------------------------------------------
TOURIST TIP:
Jiufen is a really lovely place to explore but I do advice bringing comfortable shoes because the "terrains" are not easy, and the stairs are really steep.
If you are travelling with older people, climbing the stairs may be really tough and taxing on them. We came across a group of older Japanese ladies who were heaving and puffing as they had to climb back up. I too, was struggling because the stairs are really not easy to climb.
I would recommend for you to take the taxi packages if you are travelling with older people instead of having a night's stay in Jiufen just so it wouldn't tire everyone out so much that they can't enjoy their experience there.
----------------------------------------------------------------

That's all for now! Stay tuned to the next post where we explored a little more of Jiufen in the morning, had a railway bento lunch and then took in the smells and sounds of Shilin Night Market, while feasting on wonderful yummy snacks!

Don't forget to leave any comments or questions you have to ask me, and also pointers for me on how to improve my posts!


Fly Safe and Eat Happy,
V