1 of Taiwan its most memorable places : Daytrip to Jiufen and Jinguashi
For a daytrip to Jiufen or a overnight trip during the weekends, Jiufen is the perfect getaway from the city and enjoy this little cozy old goldmining town that has been build during the colonisation from the Japanese. With a stunning view to the sea and mountains from the town this is a must visit while being in Taiwan!
Jiufen
This small goldminers town has his biggest influence from during the Japanese era, so the architecture has been strongly influenced by that. Its located on top of a hill in the Ruifang area and is overlooking the sea. The town is famous for its small cozy alleyways decorated with orange lanterns and full with foodstalls and little shops where you can get yourself get lost.
The main tourist attractions are located on the cobblestone road in town and are mainly beautiful viewpoints where you are able to take some amazing pictures.
A lot of people believe that the maker of the movie animation spirited away based the scenery of the movie on this town, but there has been discussion about weither this is really true. Although if you have seen the movie you might get the feeling you are in it, it has the same kinda vibe with the lanterns and the alleyways.
How to get there :
Its very easy to get to Jiufen from Taipei and its also fairly close to the city. You can go by and bus or just by train. If you want to go by train you will have to take a train from taipei main station to Ruifang and then from outside Ruifang station you can catch you walk to the police station and there you can take bus number 827 or 788 and it will take you up to Jiufen. The easiest way is just to take bus number 1062 from Taipei city and it will bring you straight to Jiufen in one go. You can also use the same line to get back to Taipei from Jiufen.
Jinguashi
If you do a Daytrip to Jiufen, usually people do it in combination with Jinguashi. Jinguashi is also an old gold mining town that also has been influenced by the japanese. When most people go to visit Jiufen, they combine it with visiting Jinguashi. In this town you can clearly see the influence by the Japanese so its definitely worth strolling around in this little town and enjoy the unique architecture in this small mountain town. To get here you can take a bus from Jiufen and it takes less than 10 minutes to bring you to the entrance of the gold mine.
The main tourist attraction here is the gold museum and gold ecological park. Here you can learn more about how the people used to mine the gold and some more about the history about how it went with the colonisation of the Japanese and their influence.
Only a small walk up the mountain you can have a look at the cyuanji temple or go look at the golden waterfall.
Behind the gold ecological park you can find the beginning of the hiking trail to Teapot mountain. The hike to teapot mountain is truly a hidden gem that not a lot of people now about, this is one of the higlights when you come to this area! The first part of the hike is for most people with a average condition fairly easy, but the second part is for the more adventurous traveler. Basic climbing experience could come in handy and its definitely not for people with fear of heights!
It can be tricky to find the start of the trail. But you will have to walk past the entry of the gold ecological park. If you’re not planning on visiting the gold mine you can just tell the people you are going to teapot mountain and you will not have to pay for entrance. You follow the road until it stops where the toilet is, here you will go left and right to go down. From here you just follow the small paths and search your through this maze of small paths up to the temple. From here its a little bit more up and there will be a stone stairs that is the start of the Trail. From here everything is really clear.
For a better and more explained guide to teapot mountain, this is a very interesting article :
https://www.earthtrekkers.com/teapot-mountain/
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