I was back in Taipei with my mom and sister to celebrate my mom's birthday. Part of the vacation was a fun day trip to the towns of Shifen and Jiufen.Let me take you on a virtual tour of the two towns.
Our trip to Jiufen and Shifen was an independent tour on a comfortable tourist bus. The tour company buses people to Jiufen but we were left on our own to visit the sites when we got there. It was a convenient way to get to both places versus doing it on our own via trains and taxis. The tour company's pickup point happened to be next to the Ximen train station on the other side of Zhonghua Road which was close to our hotel. The tour buses at the pickup point was also clearly marked so it was hard to miss it. I sat on a window seat and saw some great views on our way to Jiufen.
This bay is picturesque. I could tell that we were going high up judging from the sceneries outside of my window. Since we took the morning tour, we got to Jiufen when the morning coastal fog was just about to clear.
The old Jiufen town where most of the stores and sites are located are high up on a hill. We had to walk up and take the stairs. We knew this and we had planned for it. My sis and I were traveling with my mom so we had to pace ourselves. Kudos to my mom because she's such a sport. She did it!
I was glad we did our climb at a leisurely pace because we were able to checkout the cute little stores and tea shops on our way up.
There are calligraphy souvenir shops along the way. They also have friendly staff who answered all my questions including what the Chinese characters mean in English.
After what seemed like several hundred steps, we reached an intersection decorated with red lanterns. We were visiting Taipei during the Lunar New Year so I do not know if these lanterns were on display because of the occasion.
Jiufen has this nostalgic feel. It was like I was transported back in time. It was also interesting to hear my mom's opinions and her observations about how great of an idea to have preserved these buildings and architecture that made Jiufen unique and picturesque.
The swarm of tourists came in waves. The streets in Jiufen were crowded for the most part. It was a challenge taking a picture of the stairs.
However, if you wait patiently, there could be times when the streets would be practically empty for a few minutes until the next group of tourists arrive. We went to Jiufen on a Saturday. I wonder if the other days are less crowded?
There were also pockets in Jiufen where it is more crowded than the others. The streets are narrow and some of them are winding so it is also easy to get lost. Thanks to Google maps, we were able to trace our way back all the way to the tour bus with ease.
The main part of the visit to Jiufen for me was to sample the town's popular taro balls. Our tour bus guide mentioned a couple of stores and one of them was Grandma Lai's.
This was where my sis, mom and I rested while snacking on delicious taro balls.
The taro balls are sweet and they are served cold or warm. Of course, we had to try both variations.
The cafe had two main areas - the kitchen or place where they make the food and the dining area where people seat down and eat.
At first, I did not know where to order because there were several tables inside the store. I was also distracted because of the commotions at the cafe especially inside the busy kitchen. The process of making the taro ball dough was open for everyone to see.
Seeing the process of making the taro ball made me appreciate all the more the snacks that we were about to sample. It felt like I was also part of the process even though I wasn't. It looked like the process is a special family secret passed down from several generations. I wish I had more time to spend watching the busy kitchen.
They had other snacks available but we opted to try only the taro balls. I'll definitely try their other snack offerings next time.
If you take time to look for them, the town is dotted with lots of cute street arts and posters like this one.
I also enjoyed browsing through cute souvenirs with whimsical designs like these little fridge magnets.
Luckily, we passed by a post office. A great souvenir that I give myself is a postcard to self.
Our next destination was Shifen.
I saw these airborne sky lanterns when we got off the tour bus. This made me really excited about lighting lanterns. That was going to be the last event in this trip.
First, we saw the Shifen waterfalls which is on the other side of town. We crossed this suspension bridge on the way to the waterfalls.
And then we leisurely walked for about 20 minutes with pretty sceneries.
We finally reached the waterfalls. Funny how the tourists were just in and out of the area. Just like us, they were probably so excited for the sky lanterns.
We had some time to kill so we decided to break for lunch. There were restaurants near the waterfalls serving delicious Taiwanese dishes.
We decided to get this very tasty Taiwanese noodles. It tasted like a Filipino pancit noodles with a Taiwanese twist.
There is this area also near the waterfalls that is dotted with sculptures and this clock tower. I don't really know what this area is called.
We finally left the waterfalls site and walked back to the tourist bus to go the the other side of town - to Shifen old town.
We finally reached the Shifen old town for a sky lantern experience. I do not know for a fact if the sky lanterns have any cultural significance to Shifen or to the area. Sky lanterns were used in the past to convey messages during wars or to send prayers to God.
There is a small fee to get a lantern. First, we picked a color. Each color has a meaning - red for health and peace, blue for career, yellow for money and wealth, purple for studies, orange for love and marriage, green for vigor, white for future, magenta for popularity, and pink for happiness. Multi-colored lanterns are also available.
My sis and I picked red. There was a time when I used to much ink to write my message on the lantern and my texts ran and blotted. Don't use too much ink on the lanterns. And remember that each lantern has four sides. My sis took care of two sides, I put my birthday wishes for my mom on the other two sides.
After the ink of our messages dried, one of the staff of the lantern company placed an object in the middle of the lantern and it smelled of kerosene.
Don't forget to pose of a photo op. People release the sky lanterns on the train tracks. Why on the train tracks? I do not know the significance of that.
Up, up and away. We lingered in the area to watch people release their lanterns. It was actually fun to see families, couples, groups of friends with happy and hopeful faces release lanterns.
Here's the lantern my sis, mom and I released for my mom's birthday wishes. I am imagining this area would look different at night with the lanterns floating like the stars in the sky. I first witnessed something like that years ago in Thailand during the Loy Krathong celebration. It was magical!
Here's the lantern we released to celebrate my mother's birthday. I looked up the sky until I couldn't see the lantern anymore.
There was a time when people cleared the train tracks though I do not remember if a train actually ever passed by.
I saw several cute Shifen street art on our way back to the tour bus to take us back to Taipei's Ximen district.
Overall, our trip to Jiufen and Shifen were funfilled at the same time relaxing. We truly enjoyed it!
~rl
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