Taiwan Trip For The First Time (Part 3)

The photo above was the spot that Raymond was curious for years. This scene of Taipei 101 Tower was shown many times in Micro 4/3 Facebook group. When we found the exact location, it surprised Raymond because it was a small place in a garden. Moreover, Taipei 101 Tower was blocked by the construction site about 60%. This photo was Photoshopped with two photos to restore the original scene before 2018.

Part 2 ended at Jiufen, the town of gold mining. Our driver picked us up in the morning and our road to Taipei began. The route was circling to the North and then down to Taipei. It took us about a day. The first stop was the gold mining museum that everyone recommended us to go.

This museum would be very interesting if we hadn't visited the private museum at Jiufen (in Part 2). When we could freely touch and played with the antiques at the private museum, everything in this official one were locked up behind glass. There was a huge brick of gold in the museum. Absolutely, it was the highlight of the visit.





After that, we passed by the Golden Rainfall. We had no idea why it was called that name (see the photo below). Not something very impressive, right? And then, our driver took us down the hill a bit to see something shocking.



This one looked like "Golden Rainfall" more... Actually, the golden color on the rocks was toxins from gold processing factories. Japanese used chemicals to extract gold from the rocks from ~1900's to WWII. They dumped everything down to the rivers. Some local people thought those golden color substances were gold and they ended up really sick. The only lucky thing was they drank from wells instead of river.

The toxins wouldn't be gone in over 800 years from now. Crazy?





Down from the river, it should be the sea. It was what it looked like: Ying-Yang Sea. The toxin trapped in this area for another 1000 years because of the tide.



Beside this processing factory, there was a big (but broken now) pipe sending poisonous gas to the back of the hill. Japanese let the wind from sea brought the poisonous gas away from the living area.



Before we visited the park full of weird rocks (sands), we stopped at a seafood restaurant for lunch. Everyone was hungry in the day of long drive. This park was a must-visit spot for tourist. The rocks weren't the regular rocks you could see everyday.







We didn't think the "neck" could last long. Better go see it in 10 years.







Slowly entering city area, driver planned to bring us to see a red building in Danshui but it was closed. Then, we stopped by the sea side to take some photos.







We arrived at Taipei, finally!

The hotel's lobby was at B1. Ground floor looked like a commercial building with 3 elevators and a security guard station (Imagine a company's building in downtown). The design of this hotel was interesting. It had a children's play room, 24 hrs free noodles, free coffee, free pops, free snacks, free popcorns, free streamed buns, etc. Wow... The room was really small but very nice.









In the next day, we took train to Maokong cable car. The "crystal cable car" line up was about 15 to 20 mins extra wait time. The "crystal" one had a glass floor. Worth waiting.









Next, we took public buses to various locations. Not a comfy choice but not too bad.













At night, we tried to go to some night markets but we found that it wasn't made for young kids. It was way too many people pushing us to walk forward.







When you saw this glass "slavery cage", you would know it was Din Tai Fung. We only waited for less than 30 mins (way better than the one in Bellevue, WA, USA). Food was good but not super impressive.



Various places near our hotel...











The hotel we stayed was very close to Taiwan President's Office. Protest was happening at the right side (out of the photo below).



Taipei at night:











Taipei was just another modern city with brand name stuff. Most stores and restaurants closed at 9:30pm just like Canada. Although some people said big city's people were not as nice as country side's, we thought Taiwanese are very nice. The travel experience was comparable to Japan. We would love to shoot wedding photos in Taiwan if anyone hired us. Thumbs up!

Raymond & Jessie
www.raymondleung.ca
info@raymondleung.ca
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Taiwan Trip For The First Time (Part 2)

Continue from Part 1.

After the floating lantern was released into the air, we kept going a bit further to the train station. We took a train to the Cat Village: Hou-Tong. Our driver left and drove to the station to meet us. The driver was right... It was impossible to take good photos with the train if we went to this station directly. That was why he brought us the terminal station before (See Part 1). With many tourists in the train, it wasn't a fantastic experience. Just like the time people taking train to work in the morning. We wouldn't mind to skip this part of in our trip.



We arrived at Hou-Tong station. The first thing we saw was cat theme stuff. Our driver was already there waiting for us at the exit. But... where were the real cats?









Walking pass a black bridge with red lanterns, we arrived at the cat village. Lots of cats were walking around the village. Many people stopped at a cafe and played with cats.









To the other side of the train station, it became the real Hou-Tong: a mining town. We passed the old coal processing factory and a bridge then we saw the coal mine. With Taiwanese $120, you can take the tour in an antique coal mine train into the mine. Other than regular tour guide introduction, the very crazy thing was he let all of us including kids trying the antique mining machines. Those machines were left by Japanese in the old days.















Before dark, we arrived at Jiufen. Inside Jiufen's hill side, there was no hotel but something like B&B buildings. The owner had 2 buildings and he mixed us up with another group. Therefore, he brought us from buildings to show us rooms. We ended up staying beside the dinning room (shown below). The tidy room had two beds and a bathroom. The humid air made all cotton clothes and bed sheets felt not really dried.

Julfen was the place inspired "Spirited Away". We expected to meet a lot of Japanese and Korean in this town.



In the morning, we walked around the hill. The scene was totally different from the night time. Only a few people were there and air was flesh.







At night, this restaurant would be filled with people. Morning was the best time to see it clearly.



A museum showed up on the google map. This gold museum was very old and looked weird to us. The owner brought us to walk around it and explained every details about the tools and rocks with gold. The most amazing thing was the lamp the miners used. The lamp was powered by some yellow rocks with a piece of wet towel on top. We saw vapor came out of it. The vapor was the fuel of this lamp. Besides lighting, the main purpose of this lamp was testing the oxygen level of the gold mine.





Food. Food. Food. Jiufen had various small restaurants. Prices were a bit higher but reasonable. We thought the taste of most food was a little light, not salty at all.

The "stinky tofu" wasn't Hong Kong style... not "stinky" enough.



No a/c in any of the restaurant...



















Stores and restaurants closed after 9:30pm~10pm. The town was totally dead and tourists were mostly gone. That was the best time to take photos.







Night scenes.











Our original plan was having dinner at the restaurant across this (photo above) for seeing the magic moment of Jiufen. BUT... the restaurant was fully booked before 4pm. We guessed the reason was tours from Japan booked most of the tables. Next time, we should book before lunch time.

In Part 3 of Taiwan trip, we went back to the modern city, Taipei.

Raymond & Jessie
www.raymondleung.ca
info@raymondleung.ca
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