Jiufen Mountain Village

Together with my friend Cheng-Hung (a.k.a Paul) and his girlfriend Maggie, we did an afternoon trip to Jiufen (九份), which is a small mountain village right at the coast in northern Taiwan. It is about one hour by car from Taipei.

In the past, this village only counted nine families, so for each time a shipment would arrive from town, the village would request nine portions (Jiu fen) of it. Later, this also became the village name. Jiufen was a bit isolated until gold was discovered and people rushed in, booming the town. After gold mines were empty, the town declined again until a movie picture made it popular amongst the bigger crowds. Now it is a tourist attraction with local shops, teahouses and of course its nice scenic area.

The main street was extremely crowded, I was too busy watching around to all the food stall that forgot I brought my camera with me. However, here you can see some of the shots I did take.



Old street

Teahouse

More teahouses



Main temple in Jiufen

Dragon detail on Jiufen temple

Sunset view, just amazing.

Panoramic view

A hike in Four Animals Mountain

Weather cleared up after the rains. A great day for a hike as it did not seem to hot (what a mistake that was!).

I decided to go to Four Animals Mountain (Sì shòu shān, 四獸山) which is located within Taipei's city limits. This mountain is known for it's great views on Taipei city and in particular on the Taipei 101. The mountain area consists of four separate peaks - Tiger, Leopard, Lion, and Elephant - hence it's name. Many trails are lighted as well.

It is quite popular, so you are never really alone, luckily it was not too crowded.

My original plan was to follow the Public Forest Crest Line Nature Trail, which passes by all four peaks. I started at the trail going towards the Tiger peak, which was not the easiest to find. By public transport you can go to Houshanpi Station and walk to the Fengtian Temple. The road winds up a bit, and right at the moment you think this road can't be it, just persist about 100m, and you will find the trailhead.



View on 101 from Tiger Mountain trail



Small staircase upto Tiger Mountain



However, after talking to some local people which I met around Tiger peak, I decided to go for the 9-5 peak (Jiuwufeng – 九五峯), which is the highest point in this mountain area (375m). They told me Leopard and Lion Mountain were not the best places. So I followed the Nangan Shan hiking trail passing by the Fuxing Garden.

On the way, you can find some nice gardens, work-out, resting and meditation areas.

Meditation area along the way to 9-5 peak

Although 375m does not seem to be that high, I underestimated the walk a bit as the weather really cleared up by now. Doing it at temperature of 32 degrees and around 90%, it was a transcendental - euhm transpiring- way up... 

However, it was really worth the sweat. The view at the top was stunning and as sunset was coming soon, I decided to wait until all the lights in Taipei would lit up.

  

Sunset from 9-5 peak

Lights litting up over Taipei. Bring a tripod!

Panoramic view

The trail down to Elephant Mountain is not lighted compared to the other trails down, but some friendly boys told me to join them, as they brought some flashlights. So I did. As it rained before, many frogs came out on that trail, and unfortunately we are not sure if we could avoid all of them in the poor light: sorry little frogs, it was really not on purpose!

View from Elephant Mountain

Hwahsi Night Market

This alley of noodle and fish restaurants, specialty shops, foot massages and street vendors is a popular street for local and foreign toursists. Snake handles and snake-derived fluids and foods (also called medicine here) gives Hwashi street its common name: Snake alley.

Chen-Hung convinced me to have a shot with some snake blood and alcohol. Normally I don't turn much food down, but here I had some small doubts. But he is convincing!


Entrance to Hwahsi Night market

   

Here is the menu: from left to right: snake oil pills, bowl of snake soup, snake oil shot, snake poison alcohol shot, snake guts shots. Sounds like my kind of Saturday night food.



Snake restaurant: From left to right: snake oil pills, snake soup, snake oil shot, snake poison alcohol shot, snake guts shots



Voila, soup anyone? Friends asked me whether this was actually edible. It is edible, but it was not very delicious. But it can also be due the very basic preparation: basically water and snake. The snake tastes like chicken completely filled with the bones of a fish.

Snake soup

"I thought we would come here for the blood?" I asked. This was arranged in no time, so there I was with my big mouth. However, it was not so bad at all. Honestly, somewhere deep inside, I hoped to taste some more blood than the alcohol!

This would keep me going on those looooong Taipei Saturday nights :-).

Enjoying the blood alcohol shoot.





Longshan Temple

Menjia Longshan Temple (艋舺龍山寺) is one of the most known temples inside Taipei. It dates from 1738 and was build originally as a worship place for Chinese settlers. During World War II, this site was bombed by Americans thinking it was a Japanese hiding place. However, only months after the end of the war, the Taiwanese rigorously rebuilt the temple.

Now it must be one of the most popular sights to visit next to the Taipei 101 and the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall.

Praying and offering food and flowers

Flower offering

Lively inner square, also many young people

Temple

Playing with colors on some nice details