Day 7 (20/6): Jinguashi and JiouFen

To get to either town, Jinguashi or Jioufen which was located close to one another, one had to take a railway train down to Rueifang, then a local bus which would directly travel up the hills to get there. You can get more information at the visitor's centre at Rueifang station itself, and the trip down would take you about 1h and would only cost you less than $100NT per ticket.

But after getting the tickets at Taipei main train station and realising that we had an hour to spare before the next train, we checked out the area. That was where I bought two 300 pieces jigsaw puzzle which only cost me $480NT inclusive of 2 wooden frames. It's an awesome deal coming from someone who always gets his supplies from Singapore's very own jigsaw world all at a much more expensive rate. Though the designs are similar to that of the expensive Japanese imported jigsaws, of course... they were not zheng ban. But I could make do with that.

After reaching Rueifang, I put my jigsaws in the locker over there at $30NT for the entire day (don't deposit anything into the lockers at Taipei train station because they cost $40NT for 3 hours and you'll have to pay extra for every hour after). We took a scenic local bus (opposite the road of the train station) which passed by Jioufen first before dropping us at Jinguashi. We saw the picturesque street of Jioufen which appeared on every Jioufen tourist postcard and told ourselves we would visit it after checking Jinguashi.

So what's there at Jinguashi you might ask? Well, the world's largest gold bar can be found in the gold museum, as recorded by the world guiness book of records and what's more, you can actually get to touch it!! But before anyone could reach the main attraction of Jinguashi, you'll have to go through a cultural walk in appreciating the japanese fusion wooden houses built over there... + a japanese influenced beautified garden.

Had our lunch at the food area where it was a good relaxing spot and though the food wasn't that cheap (in taiwan's standards), they came in big quantities and were guaranteed to fill your stomachs.

Before that I even tried a vanilla ice-cream at one of the street stalls along the way up to all the attractions and it was the best ice-cream I had in Taiwan.

Of course you could forego all that, the attractions and the food if they doesnt interest you and walk straight to the main attraction but both of us fully ultilised our trip down by appreciating the prevalent influence of Japanese culture over there. There was a coal mine (another main attraction of Jinguashi) which would supposedly allow you to experience what it really felt like to be a coal miner. We didn't try that out because it costs us and we weren't that curious about it. All the exhibits over there were free except for the coal mining experience and the gold panning experience.

We finally entered the gold mining museum, which was air-conditioned, a great relief from the dehydrating sun and in that museum (on top of the hill) was none other than the highly acclaimed biggest gold bar in the whole wide world! It's not an exaggeration, it sure looked big as hell and it was enclosed in an acrylic-like casing. There was even a measuring device at the front of the exhibit which informed us of how heavy it was... and a little more information about the current value it fetched in the market. Many visitors just took joy in touching the bar and many tried to lift it up (weighed about 20kg). Well, I think it was feasibly possible but many were convinced it was too heavy to be lifted. I was sure it was due to the authorities mounting the gold bar to the stand and not because it couldn't be lifted. We spend a good amount of time trying to pose for good pictures since there were loads of visitors who would not give a damn about queueing up and just rush to touch it via the sides.

We also wanted to try out the gold panning experience, actually me in particular, but we missed the last time slot (take note that there are timings, 3pm being the latest timing) so I had to convince myself it wouldn't be that great anywayz. We carried on walking the path, by then many of which would head back because it almost seemed like an endless road... we crossed a suspension bridge and walked a mountain-side pathway headed to the next recommended tourist spot, the Cyuanji temple.

We did finally reach the temple, much to my dismay for it was just a small cosy temple for the towns people but the trip there was filled with alluring beauty of the unduluating mountains, as well as the garguantuan statue of Guangong overseeing the mountains (which was located near the temple itself). It wasn't that wasted a trip because there was also a trail uphill to a lookout spot which we did climb and realised it was the Baoshi mountain (as mentioned from the guide book but I didn't recall any signs describing it).

It overlooked the valley and another attraction, the Yingyang sea, called as such because it was stained by iron ore. It's actually just a small region of the sea, near the coast which was of a brownish color compared to the rest of the greenish-blue sea. Personally, nothing too fantastic. There's 2 lookout spots on top of Baoshi mountain, the further one gives you slightly better view all at a much higher price... little flying bugs and insects will attack you and might enter your mouth if you start talking. The one before has a more covered view but is less treacherous and had a better mountain breeze.

We had to leave out one of the attraction spots, the Huangchin waterfall (supposedly golden waterfall due to the gold dust gushing through it) because until then, we had no idea how to get there. There didn't seem to be a walking trail to it, seemed pretty far from Cyuanji temple (the nearest attraction to the waterfall) and even the buses doesn't go there. We didn't want to compromise our main purpose of heading down, checking out Jioufen both day and night so we proceeded to Jioufen next. Thankfully, there was a bus stop, terminal actually at the temple so we didn't have to walk all the way back to the entrance of the gold ecological park.

Took us only about 10 mins bus ride to Jioufen and that was indeed, as most word-of-mouths and postcards have already described, a must-see, must-go site in Taipei. Jioufen was lined with lanterns and the town was scattered along the hills. What really made it unique was that it was also a old town, with the streets blasting you back to the past of Taipei. Though navigation there isn't that simple, since the bus would only drop you off at the side of Jioufen while the main bustling spots are where the picuresque street crosses, it's a town to be remembered.

We asked around, spoke to a local elderly couple who spoke Fujian (didn't quite understand them) and finally chanced upon a souvenir shop with an extremely helpful and friendly shop owner who gave us another map of Jioufen and directed us to its top places. We eventually reached the much talked about street where everyone would be gathered at the base of the long and stretchy flight of stairs taking a crazy amount of photos of it, I was no exception. Just that most of the photos, and for the rest of the trip was taken using yq's camera because my memory space was already exhuasted by then.

We went to Ah Mei's teahouse, and asked if they sold Ah Ma's Suan Mei Tang, only to receive puzzling expressions and remarks from the hostresses. We thought we made a mistake so we went out of the restaurant. We re-checked our itinerary and realised we did indeed make a mistake because Ah Ma's Suan Mei Tang was Dan Shui's speciality, not Jioufen. Jioufen speciality food was the Ruo yuan, the Taro balls and the Tea served at Ah Mei's teahouse. However, we didn't try out the tea at Ah Mei's teahouse because of the embarrassing incident (do tell me if its nice if you do try them out).

Climbing up the picturesque street to the top of the long flight of stairs is where you'll find Jioufen's... famous... Taro Balls!! Any higher and you would reach the gates of Jioufen's only (I think) elementary school. There was a queue for it but it wouldn't take you long to get your food, or more appropriately, your dessert. We ordered a large bowl to share and asked them to mix everything.. red beans, green beans, big beans (no idea what beans they are) as base for the taro balls. On top of the base, they covered it with shaved ice and on top of that, the mixed taro balls. Their speciality were taro balls, but to put it more precisely, they are chewy flour balls. Different flavors range from taro (purple), to sweet potato (yellow) and what tasted like green tea with sesame (green). None were too sweet (they were not sweet enough), tasted 100% natural and didn't taste "ni" after eating a lot of them all at one go.

One would have to walk about 10 metres to their main sitting area, which overlooked Jioufen's scenic view, facing the sea and the mountains. To give you a better idea, the setting was like having dim sum in Geyland but with better views. We took some time to relax and chill out while eating the delicious taro balls and enjoying the Jioufen's ocean view. After which, we moved on to check out the other streets. We visited an abandoned coal mine which was locked up and was out of bounds and Jioufen's very first theatre.

Also tried other foods like their Ruo Yuan, some roll, some kuay which tasted like Ang Ku Kuay but was green in color and even had tea-tasting and a short tea-appreciating lesson by one of the friendly shop owners over there. The foods mentioned weren't that nice, the most disappointing being the famous Ruo Yuan which tasted pretty... horrible. The meat was marinated with this reddish spice which is very common in Taiwan, not to my liking and was covered with a sticky, chewy, slimy glutinous layer, similar to Singapore's Soon Kuay. I loved the "skin", but not the taste of the meat. Struggled with finishing it up...

Before leaving the town, we bought some bath salts from the local shop which allowed us to mix different fragrances into a mini jar all at a reasonable price of $150NT, and ate the taro balls one last time being heading back to Taipei with heavy hearts. We checked out Rueifang's night market while waiting for our return train and did some night jalaning at Ximending, but not much since most of the stalls were already closed by then and headed back to our hotel to try out Jioufen's bath fragrances...

To sum it up:

Jinguashi Ratings: 3.5/5 (the world's biggest gold bar really made the entire trip)

• it was a little rushed for us so its advisable to head out for Jinguashi earlier and check with the visitor's centre how to get to the golden waterfalls if you're interested
• As mentioned, if you wanna give the gold-panning experience a try, remember to keep track of the different timings
• dont' worry about venturing too far off because there's a bus back to Jioufen or Rueifang at Cyuanji temple (where you get to come upclose with the majesty Guangong)
• no admission fees except for coal mining experience and the gold panning experience
• food there wasn't totally cheap, but served pretty good food, so you can just have your meals over there (3 thumbs up for the ice-cream over there, not that cheap though)
• the biggest gold bar will be well-worth your trip down

Jioufen Ratings: 5/5 (everything was beautiful, the town, the streets, the view, the food, the people)

• wouldn't be a waste if you were to spend your entire day in Jioufen and forego Jinguashi but as much as I loved Jioufen, I'm not sure if there's that many things to do over there
• the Taro balls was definitely the highlight food of the trip, regretted not trying out Ah Mei's teahouse but the rest of the foods were just average
• picturesque street was overly hyped up but it's a good landmark to where you should go when in Jioufen because that's where all the shops are
• despite the rough guide mentioning that there were night lights of fishing boats on the distant sea, there weren't any (probably seasonal), but worth staying till late to witness the street lanterns litting up the streets at night