Yesterday we made a day trip to JiuFen. It is a small mining town on the North coast of Taiwan. It's an hour and half bus ride from Taipei, costs about 100NT($2).
The mining for gold at JiuFen has played out, now it is mostly a tourist town. Up in the mountains, the town is built on the slope.
On such a slope, each house is it's own project. There is no chance for a layout of houses all looking the same.
It was raining when we got there but there is one main street with shops on either side, The street is narrow enough that the awnings from each side reach to each other in the middle. There are unique foods and crafts along the way.
I had been to JiuFen almost 20 years ago, when we worked at the Taiwanese National Center for High Performance Computing. Our assistant director organized a trip for the IBM sales team to go to JiuFen. JiuFen is known for there tea shops, some say tea tastes better up in the mountain air, looking out over the scenery. Our assistant director was a tea connoisseur and this was a chance for him to explain the intricacies of tea and the tea ceremony. I remember his great disappointment when the IBMers ordered coffee! I searched for that tea shop, I think this is it.
But it might have been this one, both have great views of the seacoast(if it isn't raining).
The weather in Northern Taiwan(Taipei) has been pretty good, much warmer than last year. The cherry blossoms are coming out, even up in the mountains around JiuFen.
I have the feeling that the rocks around JiuFen are granite, because the pavement stones in JiuFen are granite. Even though it was raining the whole time, the granite pavement was not slippery.
What a beautiful place! It reminds me a little of Santa Catalina Island, which has houses built up steep streets around the harbor. It didn't rain, though, when I visited there in October. I continue to love your many photos. I appreciate the work it takes you to put them in your blog.
ReplyDeleteI had lots fun too. It was my first time there. I would visit again.
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