Jinguashi & Jiufen

Last Sunday, I organized a little trip to Jiufen and Jinguashi. These are two rather old, small towns on the ocean shore, about 90 minutes North-East of Taipei. They are popular tourist destinations, most notable for its breathtaking scenery of steep slopes and the ocean (for a foreign tourist, that is). There also used to be gold mines here - now rebuilt into a mining museum in Jinguashi.

One thing I simply love about public transportation here in Taiwan - even if these are really small places pretty far away, there is a bus leaving from Taipei every 5 - 10 minutes. 

Now, for the pictures. Joining the trip were, Jana - a Czech Master's student, Ryan - my Canadian classmate and Tomas - a Czech exchange student. 

First, we make our way to Jinguashi (金瓜石) and check out the "Gold Ecological Park", i.e. an outdoor mining museum. 

There are several old gold - refining factories, dormitories for the miners, old railway..

Entrance into the mines..

And a big golden brick in the museum. The weight is about 270 kg and value - don't know, but it's worth a lot of money.

As we're walking around, we have nice views over the sleepy Jinguashi town, as well as the nearby Jilong mountain. The mountain lies directly between Jiufen and Jinguashi and soon became the main destination of our trip. We have plenty of opportunities to size it up..

And then get going. Once again, it's scorching hot, so these "pit stops" along the way are very welcome.

The views from the top are amazing and absolutely worth the hike.

 

A peaceful moment at the summit. Not very many tourists come up here.

We meet a few brave ones on our way down.

Jiufen (九份) is the last place on our list. This is an old town with a spectacular setting.

And once again, we get to admire the Jilong mountain. 

Once again, most tourists don't have a chance to admire the vistas. They come to Jiufen for something different.. Shopping, particularly in this little lane. It is like any other Taiwanese shopping lane.. food stands, shops selling just about anything, and huge crowds of people. I didn't find anything particuarly enjoyable about it, but I guess that's just me. The locals apparently love the crowds. The moment we walked out of this area, to a place that has fresh air and views (see above), we were all by ourselves again. I still fail to comprehend the logic behind coming to a historic town for shopping. 

Regardless, the trip was very nice.