Around Jiufen

I woke to miserably wet weather, worse than yesterday’s.  After a good hotel breakfast, I checked the forecast.  It was meant to be more or less similar all day but just slightly better in the afternoon.

Around 0900, I decided to put on a brave face and the poncho which I had bought five years ago in Batam.  The Gold Museum seems to be the recommended sight here and it had a few other sights in the general direction.

The ride to the Gold Museum was short but windy.  I arrived just on their opening time.  The Museum comprises various ticketed sights set in a large area, which is free to enter.

First sight was a Japanese house built for the management of the gold mining operation.  It was minimalist, as expected.

Next, I went up hill to the museum proper which had lots of information about gold, mining and processing.  It was actually more information than I was interested in.  I felt like I was only here to get out of my room but had to put up with the cold rain instead.

Perhaps the highlight was touching the 220kg block of pure gold that was worth about USD14.2 million.

There is a trail that goes towards the Cyuanji Temple.  I went halfway along and lost interest when I realised I’d have to climb back in the rain to get back.

I backtracked to go to the Shinto Shrine.  That required an uphill walk.  It was a bit of a disappointment to find that only pillars remain from the shrine.

I combed the remainder of the site to make sure I hadn’t missed anything significant before leaving for the bus stop.  Surprisingly, I had spent 2h30 there!  I had been worried that today would be a drag with the wet weather and not being able to do much.

The Golden Waterfall is only a short ride away by bus.  It was a short wait to get the roadside sight.  It often has a yellow hue from the copper and iron deposits that are picked by the water as it passes through the mines.  But with heavy rain, the minerals are more diluted it just looked like a pretty waterfall.

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It was a 30 min wait for the next bus back to Jiufen, with a long wait till the one after.  A short walk away are the Remains of the 13 Levels (of a copper smelting factory).  It’s supposed to be quite a sight.  Even though the rain had eased by now, I was unsure of the walk, both in terms of safety (it’s narrow and windy with big vehicles in both directions) and time (didn’t want to miss the bus and have an even longer wait).

So, I accepted the 30 min wait for the bus which arrived on time.  It was around 1320 by the time I grabbed myself some street food in a couple of places on Jiufen’s Old Street.

Back in the room around 1400, I spent a lot of time lying in the nice warm bed.  It hadn’t been a nice day out but I had tried to make the most of it!

The weather dried out but remained gloomy for the rest of the day.  I was able to take dinner at a more respectable time tonight, after 1800.  I took a second visit to last night’s dinner place where I was able to choose from a variety of meats, vegetables and noodles which was then cooked in a soup for me.  Vegetables are quite hard to find in an environment that specialises in street food.

I’m leaving Jiufen without visiting the “famous” Ah Mei’s teahouse.  There are various reasons for this:

• I’m not a tea connoisseur
• I have just enough money for lunch and spare for any transport surprises, and
• The view from the teahouse isn’t worth it in the current weather. It looks nicer from the outside than the inside, from photos I’ve seen.