One of my FAVORITE parts of Taiwan was Jiu Fen (九份), which used to be a mining town up in the mountains. The name means 9 portions and comes from the fact that there used to be 9 main families and so when shipments would come to their port people would always ask for 9 portions of items, and voila! their name was born.
Aside from this place having absolutely amazing scenery, it’s actually the inspiration for Spirited away!
I went during the day time, and my little old iPhone camera would not have been able to do the town justice anyways.
So here is a stolen picture off google images [HQwallpaper.com] that displays the true magnificence - and may perhaps show you just how spirited away could have been inspired by this humble town.
You can read more about a lot of the similarities between spirited away and Jiu fen as well as some history at this kids blog.
MORE MARKETS
Jiu Fen has an “old street”, which is basically a market, and they serve more iconic sticky gooey goodies. My favorite was definitely this shaved ice mochi red bean concoction. I bought two that day, and bought another later in another market. I was in love.
Here are some picss:
My picture of this delectable treat was not cute, so I borrowed this one from AreYuTravelling
Side Story
It’s funny because we were here during all the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations, and many of Thomas’ relatives suggested that we not go as it would be incredibly crowded and lines for busses would be insane.
Well, you know how everyone believes their luck peaks during CNY? Ours certainly did. We took the MRT from Thomas’ Grandma’s house to the bus station, and when we got there, there was a short line for the bus. But as soon as we got in line, the bus arrived, and while we were starting to get on the bus, the line nearly quintupled in size! Because we were near the front we got to sit down for the 2 hour ride to Jiu Fen, but a lot of people had to stand, and a lot more people had to continue waiting in line.
This bus also made another stop at a city in between, and the line for the bus at that stop circled around a whole building!
Fast forward to leaving, at about 4pm we were ready to head back, and we mistakenly got on the wrong bus. The bus that we got on was heading further up the mountain to a parking lot. The road to that parking spot was incredibly narrow and the rate that we were moving was about 1 meter a minute. I shit you not. Any how, after having not moved for about 1 hour, I realize that we are on the wrong bus, and see the bus that we were supposed to take heading in the opposite direction of us, and as we had once again luckily gotten a seat on this bus at the back of the bus. We ask the bus driver if we may get off already traffic halted bus and board the other. He rolls down his window and asks the other bus driver if he has room, to which the other bus driver says yes. We then proceed to climb over seats and people, even climbing over a stroller (these busses were SUPER CROWDED), and manage to get on the correct bus. The traffic heading down the mountain was not as bad as going up, so as soon as we got on, we got moving. Also, everyone on the bus had been coming from the parking lot, therefore they were HEADING to the heart of Jiu Fen, so 80% of the bus got off at the stop that we were supposed to have gotten on. When they got off, we got seats, and we also witnessed possibly the longest line I have ever seen. It wounded all the way down the city of Jiu Fen. I tried to take a picture but it’s definitey a “YHTBT” sort of thing. Basically it’s the idea of taking the up elevator to catch a down elevator that isn’t full. Thus, we had no lines, no real wait, and no standing for 4+ hours.
You may not think this to be that epic, as it is a story of public transportation, but you may not understand just how many Chinese tourists there were. SO SO SO MANY.