Day 6: Taipei - Shifen - Jiufen - Taipei

Today was the only excursion we had outside Taipei. For the last few days I did my research on the internet of places of interest which were not too far from Taipei. In the end, I decided to go Shifen for the waterfalls and then Jiufen, a traditional village on top of the mountain.

Taipei Railway Station
It wasn't very easy to navigate if you didn't know how to read or speak Mandarin. :)


Taipei railway station


The regional train


View from the train

We bought second class tickets which didn't have any seat reservations. The train was packed but luckily I got a seat but he didn't and had to stand for the whole journey. On our train ride, I managed to make a small talk with an uncle sit next to me. I showed him all my Taiwan maps to get more info on the tourist places and he was happily explaining all the places that he had been to. :)

We alighted at Rueifang station and transfer to another train to Shifen. When the train passed through some small waterfalls, we moved towards the door to get better view of them.







Shifen
At last, we arrived at Shifen station. The most interesting about this village was the rail track that cut through it. So instead of looking out for cars when crossing to the other side, we had to look out for trains. :P




Rail track that cut through the village.


Post box at Shifen

We decided to have a quick lunch at the only Shifen restaurant before going to the waterfalls.


Fishball soup


Fried rice and noodle

There is a local custom of writing some wishes on the lantern and fly it off. We saw a few lanterns that day. An annual flying lantern festival is usually held at Pingxi, not far from here.



It was about 20 minutes walk to reach the waterfalls. We had to go through suspension bridge, some stairs, another bridge, another fleet of stairs, I think it was hard for the old folks to make it there.


A suspension bridge


Another suspension bridge




Nice huh? This was not the main waterfall yet.


Another waterfall

Shifen Waterfall
It is dubbed as the little Niagara. I guess tiny is more appropriate eventhough I haven't been to Niagara. :P








The little Niagara





Rueifang station
We took a train back to Rueifang station, alighted here and took a bus opposite the station to go up the mountain to Jiufen village.


Rueifang station

Jiufen
The view from here was very nice, we were lucky to reach here just in time for sunset.


View from Jiufen



Jiufen is also famous for its local snacks particularly the taro balls. The village isn't that traditional anymore as it has become quite touristy.


A whole stretch of small shops selling local snacks and souvenirs.



This is the shop of the most famous taro balls dessert. It wasn't easy to find the shop as there was no accurate map for this village. We enjoyed the dessert very much plus the place had a nice view to offer.




Love it, don't mind coming back again for more. :)


Taro balls with green and red beans

Later, we took a Taipei bound bus instead of going back to train station at Rueifang. It was late when we reached our hotel so we decided to have an in-room dining. We ordered braised chicken with rice wine again and fried pork rib with fermented rice paste. Ahh... it was still yummy.


Braised chicken with rice wine and fried pork rib with fermented rice paste

Day 7 >>