JIUFEN with the Girls

For the past two days, I have been in northern Taiwan, in a densley packed, ancient town, set on the side of a mountain. Winding, narrow roads lead you through steeply pitched scenery, the thin layers of cloud and fog and the ever-present mist wafting up from the ocean far below, as you wind your way up the mountainside to the start of the marketplace.

Jiufen, also written as Jiofen, was orginally an isolated mountain town, cut off from the rest of the world until gold dust was discovered in 1893. The resulting gold rush reached its peak during the Japanese Colonization period. Today many Japanese style inns, teahouses, restaurants and the gorgeous Gold Ecological Park remain true to the original Japanese aesthetic. During WWII, a POW camp was established there for holding Allied soldiers, including many British, who were captured in Singapore and forced to work the mines. The mines were eventually shut down in 1987. Jiufen became an impressive tourist attraction after several movies were filmed there. The Gold Ecological Park was established to preserve the mine, the Japanese structures, gardens and the memories of this period of history.



The gorgeous mountains and breathtaking views of the ocean are visible from hundreds of spots throughout the area. The marketplace is open 7 days a week and is jam-packed with tourists, mostly Taiwanese, Chinese and Japanese. The marketplace is made from an endless series of winding and interlocking narrow streets, lined with awning covered shops that sell everything you can imagine and more including food, candy, clothing, trinkets, calligraphy, shoes, brushes, scrolls, jewelry, toys, massage instruments..and all manner of souvenirs! Restaurants, teahouses and eateries of all varieties sit sandwiched among the shops. The odors change from pungent almond to roasting meat to an indescribable putrid within seconds. It is remarkable; a visual, auditory and full sensory experience. At one moment, there is the din of people scrambling for fresh dumplings followed by the hawkings of the "jelly girls" (I nicknamed this twosome who sold gelatin shapes in all flavors) beckoning you to taste a slice of their confections. Further on, the market is silent, broken only by the high-pitched flautist selling her beautifully hand-made ceramic flutes. On further, people are huddled together sipping and munching on the house specialty..a combination of fruit and dough balls cooked in some sort of a soup. The amount of humanity packed into this place is equalled only by the herds of mangy dogs running underfoot, begging for food and comfort.

I traveled to Jiufen in the company of Dr. Chiu-Jhen Chen and her six graduate students, all charming young women who could not have been more gracious and helpful to me and Dr. Chen. We started our journey, early on Monday morning with a 50 minute train ride from the main train station in Taipei to the Rueifang Station, followed by a ten minute taxi ride to the Jiufen markeplace.

We spent the night in a lovely hotel that had scenic overlooks that captivated me, despite the heavy rainfalls. This hotel has a 20 foot high wall made from stones that had been carved into blocks, indigenous to the area, that is simply awesome. I have included a picture of it. To get to the hotel we climbed up at least three thousand stairs. Since Jiufen is built along a mountainside, there is no other option than to climb those steps higher and higher. Carrying suitcases and purchases made along the way made it challenging, especially when balancing an umbrella and whatever you happen to be munching on! Lucky for Dr. Chen and myself that the grad students, displaying their continual respect for their Professor and her friend, immediately grabbed our packages, making the hike much more doable. 

Although the shopping was fun, the food strange, but good, once I got myself to try it, my favorite part of the trip was the tea house where we spent the afternoon. The girls found a beautiful spot high upon the hill with picture windows facing out to the mountains and ocean below. We arrived in the rain and the view was bleak and foggy. But as the afternoon slipped away, the clouds lifted and the view became quite clear and magical. We opened the windows and felt such a fresh sweep of ocean air, that it seemed as if the last vestiges of my jet lag evaporated into the air.

We enjoyed a traditional tea ceremony which included the steeping of tea leaves and flowers and the pouring of the first pot of tea over the cups. This first pouring is discarded, more water is added to the leaves and the tiny cups are filled. The drinking of the tea began in earnest and continued for four refills before the ceremony was repeated. Interspersed with our tea activities, we ate wonderful dried fruit, played a variety of card games, I learned my requisite ten new Mandarin vocabulary words per day and we simply sat and visited. It grew dark and we became hungry and ordered a wonderful meal. Eventually, we trekked back up the hill, up the three thousand steps and found our way to our richly appointed beds. I was thrilled to find a TV with English speaking movies! So here I was in Jiufen, perched high atop a mountain, hanging out over the ocean, snuggled down in my quilted and buffeted down feathers, watching "Finding Dr. Nimo." 

The next morning, it was still raining, but after eating a breakfast of soy milk tea plus bread and green onions ( I brushed my teeth at least ten times after that one,) we took another cab up to the Gold Ecological Park. This is a wonderful place to visit, especially the gardens and mountain vistas surrounding the Prince of Japan's home. There is a lovely restaurant that serves a typical miner's lunch. The meal of pork chops, rice, a hard boiled egg and some chopped up pickles came in a metal tin, wrapped in a bandana with a set of wooden chopsticks fastened in the knot. (picture included) I got to take my metal tin home with me and will reuse it for something! There was so much to learn, see and appreciate in this park, including lovely scroll mounted paintings of the vistas surrounding the park, jewelry made from gold and the mega block of gold. Anyone who can actually pick it up can take it home with them. The waterfalls and closeness of the mountains makes me feel as if I am in another world. It was breathtaking!

We took the train back to Taipei in the afternoon and I arrived back home just in time to take my garbage down for the daily 5 PM pick-up. It was a great trip, made even better by the great company I had with me. See more pictures by clicking JiuFen!