With a full rest on Day 4, we started Day 5 even earlier to catch a bus out to Ruifang then a train to Shifen. We stopped at 3 places – Jingtong (菁桐), Pingxi (平溪) and Shifen (十分). We had an hour only for each places as we were following the train schedule. If not, we will be stuck in one place for 2 hours. Also, we had to keep in tight schedule as we had to be back in Taipei at 2-3pm to meet up some friends. We have 2 very kind Taiwanese friends that accompanied us pretty much the whole day and one has to travel from Tainan (2 hours by bullet train).
The train tracks…
The typical attractions at these stations are the bamboo wish sticks and sky lanterns.
Jingtong
This was our 1st stop for the line and also the last station for the Pingxi line. It is a small and quiet town and I am sure this is nice retreat if you want to get away from the bustling city and people. If you a time, have cup of coffee at the old street and enjoy the cool weather.
There are a few stations here people will make wishes on the bamboo sticks and hang it around the train stations. Jingtong is one of them. In fact, pretty much all the stations we stopped have them.
The main attraction here is the Jingtong Coal Memorial Park. It was active from 1918 till in the 1970s before it closed down for good. There are some structures still visible around the area so as the cart tracks. The trees and its roots are growing around the building structures which made it very unique. The place can be a bit spooky as it was just 2 of us.
The next thing to visit here is the Lover Bridge. It is basically a red bridge with the bamboo sticks that hung around.
Pingxi
This is a slightly larger town than Jingtong and it has nothing much to do besides letting go of the sky lantern. It is also known as Kongming or Chinese lantern. It is like a hot air balloon that made of paper. Normally, there are 2 places where you can release the lantern and they are Pingxi and Shifen. Shifen is more crowded, so the shop workers would want you to release them quick so that they can attend to another customer. I find the shop workers in Pingxi will give you more time or attention to you in releasing the lantern.
When you are here, have a bite of the Taiwanese version hotdog. It is Taiwanese grill sausage wrap around glutinous rice, onions, spring onions and veggie. It sure was delicious and it was our breakfast too. The funny thing was, we didn’t have to open up the wrapper. All we had to do was to twist and turn the wrapper and it pushed up the hotdog. No mess.
Follow by a bowl of tofu fa (豆腐花). Also, I got a cup of good Americano at Family Mart for just NT$35. It lasted me till late afternoon before I ate again. Generally, you can just walk into any convenient shops and you can get a good cup of coffee.
Shifen
This was our last stop before we headed back to Ruifang to catch a train back to Taipei. Shifen is like a repetitions of the 2 towns we visited earlier. The sky lantern, the bamboo wish sticks and the sausages. The only unique thing is the train track is running along a busy shops. It is like the Maeklong Railway Market in Bangkok.
As you can see from the picture below, the crowds were just too overwhelming. They were lining up to get their turns to release it.
The good part is you can see a lot of them up in the sky at once.
If you have time, do visit the waterfall in Shifen as we have missed it due to tight schedule. I saw some pictures posted online and it is quite beautiful. Also, if you are a cat lover, you may want to stop at Houtong Cat Village (猴硐貓村). According to some blogger it has like 100s cats there. I did see some cats here and there at the 3 stations we stopped.
To get here: Take Bus 788 from Jiufen to Ruifang train station. Then, purchase the Pingxi Line & Shen’ao Line to Shifen. Make sure that you are purchasing a ticket that allows you to hop on and off at any stations. We saw a couple bought a single trip ticket to Shifen and they were not allowed to get back onto the train after hop off.
Back in Taipei
When we were back in Taipei we went straight to Dihua Street which is near Dadaocheng Wharf to look for our friends. This area is mainly selling dry seafood or Chinese herbs.
Sadly, you can still see a lot of shark fins being sold.
We stopped for a small bowl of noodle and this place is mainly selling every part of the pig that you can think of. This is highly recommended by our Taiwanese friends but of course you have to like pig intestines and stuff. If you are, then head to Yongchang and Minle Street and look for 永樂米苔目.
Our next stop is to visit some hot springs in Xinbeitou. There are a lot of hot springs around this area and some are open to public for free where you can soak your legs into the hot pool. There are places you can bath or soak your whole body in but you have to pay to get in. Do visit the Beitou Thermal Valley to view the 3500 square meters of hot springs.
Before we left the place, we went to a Fuxing Park (復興公園) and soak our tired legs. It is not far from Xinbeitou MRT Station. It has 3 pools and each has different temperatures.
To get here: Take the red line MRT to Beitou then change train to Xinbeitou. The Xinbeitou train is very unique compared with others.
Taiwan is all about eat and eat and eat. Pretty much nonstop eating. We had our dinner at Shilin Night Market food court (士林夜市).
Even the 7-Eleven stores has wide variety of food.
Our 1st stop was to try the cuttlefish thick soup (生抄鱿鱼庚). It has squid, bamboo shoots, cabbage and of course cuttlefish. The soup was very sweet as it got all the sweetness from the seafood. Something ought to try as it was quite unique way of cooking and new to my taste buds.
Next was chicken chop from Hot-Star (豪大大雞排). I felt the quality of this shop has dropped since I last visited in 2012. In fact, there is another roadside store is even better which I will talk about it more in my next blog.
Our grand finale was the herbal spare rib soup which I find it nothing to shout about but this place is quite famous. The herbal soup does not have a strong taste as in Malaysia “Bak Kut Teh” (aka BKT). If you don’t like the strong taste, then this might suits you well. So, head to Hai You Shi Jin Pai Gu (海友十金排骨).
Too full to go home and sleep? Play some games along the street stores. There are plenty of these stores here.
How about catch some prawns?
To get here: Take the red line MRT to Jiantan.
Traveling & Cycling 