July 13
- Kate Ross
- Jul 19, 2019
- 9 min read
Last weekend, I know. I'm writing this a bit late, I finally made the trek out to see some big tourist locations that I had wanted to see for a while now.
July 13 was a jam packed busy day. Granted I didn't leave the apartment until like 11, and I honestly only visited two places. It felt B-U-S-Y. I visited two very touristy destinations just outside of Taipei. Shifen 十分 and Jiufen 九分.
To get to Shifen I was confident in my navigating skills. I knew that I wanted to get on a train at Taipei Main Station towards Ruifang and transfer to Shifen via the Pingxi line. I felt like I knew what was happening, and I knew that if I was to get lost I could definitely count on Google maps. I was wrong.
I successfully made it on the train towards Ruifang from Taipei Main Station. I made it too Ruifang. I was in the Pingxi line headed for Shifen, and I got on the next train to Shifen (or so I thought). The moment the door closed I realized I made a mistake. The worst part, was that through all of the other blogs online that I had read, I knew that the Pingxi train's ran like once an hour. I got off at the first stop that I could. When I got off I immediately went to go look at the train schedule to figure out how long I would need to wait for the train to come back. Thankfully it was only like 20-30 minutes. What was really great was when a stranger came over and tried to help me. But rather than understanding that I genuinely just made a mistake, she just started laughing at me. As much as I understood how funny it was that a 外国人 just got lost in Taiwan, it isn't helpful when someone laughs at your genuine mistakes.
When I got on the next train to arrive at this station wherever I was, I was able to take it all the way down to Shifen. If you ever visit Taiwan let me just make it clear, it should NOT take close to 2.5-3 hours to get to Shifen on a train. It's quicker if you drive, but if you need to take a train it should only be like 1.5. This was not the best mistake to make.
Shifen is a teeny little city outside of Taipei, easily accessible by truly any mode of transportation. Shifen and Pingxi (both are cities), are very famous for their Sky Lantern festivals that occur around February.
The trains arriving at Shifen follow the Old Street, and it is exceptionally common to see tourists just walking the streets. You may think "how would they know when the next train is coming?" Don't worry if they don't know, someone who works on the old street or a train conductor is always on the lookout for a tourist who doesn't know that a train is coming. People in Taiwan are so friendly and are always looking out for the apathetic people who are unaware.
The entire Shifen old street lines the Pingxi trail tracks with gift shops, people trying to get you to buy a Sky lantern, and painting stations for the lantern you buy. It was interesting to see the old street culture in Shifen versus a famous night market in Taipei. They are similar in concept, but these are completely different in culture and what happens on each.
Since the lantern buying is such an essential part of the economy of this town, I figured it'd share a video of what happens here. Specificially what occurs after you buy and decorate your lantern. Each lantern are different colors and represent different characteristics or attributes that you want in your life. Locals are there to help you get your lantern up in the air!
After I got away from the main tourist crowd I basically just continued my walk towards the large attraction sight, the Shifen waterfall. Just a mere 30 minute walk from the train station (assuming you don't stop every five minutes to take pictures) is a gorgeous waterfall. To get there you get to walk along a nice river and take several suspension bridges!
You know you made it to the waterfall when you get off of a suspension bridge and you see what looks like a random tourist destination slapped in the middle of a hike. Yes. The Shifen city built tourist shops for you to get snacks and souvenirs before you even see the waterfall. I'm not entirely sure why they would ruin a "hike" with something like that, but they want to get their money's worth on this tourist attraction. Before the waterfall right at the tourist spot after the suspension bridge there was a small little shrine that you could pray at. I didn't, but I saw a few cool statues!
And a few minutes later, I was at (based on the blogs that I had read before coming to Taiwan) Taiwan's "Niagara Falls".
It was gorgeous. Also, after looking back at my pictures, I finally think I understand what my dad meant by "sometimes a photo is better in black and white than in color." It's crazy to think of all of the things that I'm figuring out by myself just on accident. It's insane!
Getting back to Shifen Old Street was easy and uneventful. When I walked past the entrance to the hike, I was only marginally annoyed to realize that there is a bus that could have directly taken me from the end of the brown line to Shifen and I would have avoided the getting lost aspect of my journey, but that's okay.
After arriving back at Shifen Old Street I primarily just walked back to the train station as I didn't have any intention of missing the 3:40 train back to Ruifang station, but I did manage to take an interesting photo with the lanterns in the sky. I understand that the quality of the photo isn't amazing, but imagine it is the evening in February and you are in Pingxi (a small Taiwanese town with a similar vibe to that of Shifen with a nice camera). Multiply the number of of lanterns you see in this picture probably by several thousand, while picturing you are in a sea of tourists. It may be insanely uncomfortable to be standing in a sea of tourists, however I believe it would definitely be a unique experience not worth missing. Next time!
The brief time that I had in Shifen was wonderful, and I'm very happy that I got out of Taipei to go explore that area. I had intentions of trying to also visit Huotong, but that didn't happen :(. Regardless, it was time to go to my last destination of the day.
I got to Jiufen by way of jam packed train from Shifen to Ruifang and then bus from Ruifang station out to Jiufen. When I say the train was jam packed I honestly mean it. People just kept hopping on the train to the point where people got in the little train bathroom and just stood in there as they waited to get off at Ruifang. It was INSANE. Thankfully, I wasn't doing anymore train transfers at Ruifang station so there wasn't any additional hours of getting lost. It was awesome! I left the station, I hopped on the bus and I was then en route to Taiwan's Santorini - Jiufen.
On the way up the mountain to Jiufen, I was getting extremely excited because the clouds looked they could make for an AMAZING sunset. It was slightly overcast, but in a way where it was still clear. You could even see the sun-rays. It was really quite awesome.
Getting off the bus I had a bit of time, because I was going to meet two of my roommates at Jiufen. I didn't join them at the Houtong because I wanted to go see the Shifen waterfall, but we said that we would both meet up in Jiufen and walk around for a bit there. Since they were slightly behind and didn't catch the train I was on (close to four) back to Ruifang, they were on the train an hour later. Therefore, when I got to Jiufen I went exploring. There were several lookout points as Jiufen provides gorgeous views of the mountains and the coast. What was really interesting was that it was a clear enough day that I was kind of able to see Keelung City and Yehliu Geopark in the distance.
After taking a brief moment to stand in awe of Jiufen and it's panoramic views of the Northeast coast of Taiwan, I was on my way to explore Jiufen's Old Street. Let me just say it is a SPECTACLE.
The image to the left is somewhat interesting. In the states, our convenience store culture isn't nearly as relevant to our culture as it is in Asia. Jiufen, an old city that was found during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, has turned into a tourist destination. When tourists get off their bus, their phones turn them to just walk until you see a 7-11. Convenience stores are literally everywhere in Taiwan. So much so, that they can act as markers to know if you have reached your destination. Back home in the States, you'd be lucky to find a convenience store that can do as much for you as a Taiwanese store can. Here you are able to send mail, draw money from an ATM, and even have a quick meal. They're AMAZING.
Alright, back to Jiufen.
After I got over the fact that there was a 7-11 marking the entrance to the old street, I ventured in. The old street to me felt similar exploring the Four Quarters in Israel. Essentially a seemingly endless road with a tight path giving you a single direction of where you can explore with an occasional intersection allowing you to change direction. There were so many shops with different aromas from the food and drinks they were selling. There seemed to be infinite shops selling tourist shlock: Spirited Away items, miniature sky lanterns, handmade ocarina's, Asian stationary, and so much more. Basically everything that you could imagine on an Old Street in Taiwan, was here. It was insane.
Eventually, I got a text from my roommates and we met up at the A-Mei Tea House. Or at least we tried too. A-Mei Tea House is home to the most famous Instagram pictures at Jiufen. But, people actually realized that the place to get the picture of the teahouse is of a different teahouse across the path from A-Mei. Since it has become such a major picture location for everyone it was ridiciulous trying to do anything over there. We took our pictures there and then we left. I didn't get "THE" picture. But I did get a FEW pictures in front of the A-Mei Teahouse. Sadly, the light was blown out on one. If you look up pictures of the teahouse online, you'll see gorgeous night photos with the lanterns lit up, and they look absolutely amazing.
Even though I was unable to get the picture of the teahouse that I was hoping for, I did get a GORGEOUS image that I am really proud of. When it get's dark out in Jiufen, all of the red lanterns that line the pathways light up. Despite being unable to get the image of A-Mei, we were there just around sunset and when the lanterns lit up. I'm really happy with this picture.
These lanterns line the entire Jiufen old street, and every side of the lantern says something different. I didn't get the image I was hoping, but in my opinion I got something IMMENSELY better.
As it was just about sunset time, it was time to head over to a good lookout to see the sunset. Even though the clouds weren't cooperating correctly, I still think I was somewhat marginally successful in my mission. Hopefully with the(se) sunset picture you can tell why people call this small town Taiwan's Santorini. Hint, it's because of the towns on a mountain looking out at the coast. I know you can't see the coast in this picture, but that is why people sometimes refer to this city as the Santorini of Taiwan.
While taking a ridiculous amount of sunset photos that evening, I was with my roommates. It always surprises me watch people my age who are deeply immersed in this social media age and taking selfies. Somehow, college students (older than me) were taking two people sunset selfies. It is contradictory in the fact that it took two individual people working together to take a selfie of one person. Somehow, they managed to do it though. I am completely oblivious as to how the whole situation even began.
When we finally decided we were done in Jiufen (it was very soon after taking all of our pictures at the overlook to watch the sunset), we were on our way to figure out how to get back to Taipei. Due to the crazy amount of people also trying to get onto a bus, we figured the quickest way was to just take a taxi. I'm honestly happy that we did. Taking it also reminded me again how cheap everything in Asia is. It was close to an hour long ride back to Taipei, for less than $7USD. Just to get from Brandeis to Boston Logan in an Uber its close to $40, and that ride is about 40-80minutes depending on traffic. The prices of things here are CRAZY.
As you can tell from everything you just read (assuming you are still reading at this point), Saturday was really busy. So I decided to just take a relaxing day and just review and do my work for the week on Sunday. So no blog post for the 14th. Sorry.
It's kind of crazy that after living in Taiwan for about seven weeks, I have managed to see many of Northern Taiwan's cultural landmarks. Taiwan's "Lincoln Memorial" at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. The changing of the national guard at the Chiang Kai Shek memorial similar to that of the changing of the Royal guard in England. Taiwan's "Grand Canyon", Taroko Gorge. Taiwan's "Niagara Falls" in Shifen. Finally, Taiwan's "Santorini", Jiufen.
Who knows what else I may encounter during my time here in Taipei?
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