Exploring Taiwan!: Day 3 : Jiufen, Shifen and Pingsi

i got to sleep in late since both of them wanted to go for a church service in the morning haha...initally we were supposed to go to Yeliu (野柳), but then had to skip it due to time constraint...packed up our stuffs and took a train to Ruifang (瑞芳) train station...our minsu host from 龍門客棧 came to fetch us with a mini-van...龍門客棧 is located almost near the peak of Jiufen (九份)...so there is a very good view of Jiufen and surroundings from our minsu top floor balcony...rested a while before we head to the crowded Jiufen old streets...the small alleys are really full of people...and i really like those traditional decorations, especially the chinese laterns...bought foods and stuffs before we took a bus back to Ruifang train station...after which we took a train along the Pingsi Line to Shifen (十分)...we had to walk quite a distance to reach the Shifen waterfall and it is funny that every Taiwanese we ask along the way keep telling us that we are just 5 minutes away when actually we are still very far from it lol...we also joke about the literal meaning of its chinese name..."十分大瀑布" for those who understand chinese hehe...but the waterfall was really nice and magnificent and luckily for us it didn't rain as the sky was looking threateningly dark and grey...took our time to walk back to the train station and took another train to Pingsi (平溪) stop...the town was pretty small and looks very unique during the night...we found a shop which was displaying lots of antique stuff...we figured that it was quite interesting...so we just hopped in and had our dinner there while enjoying the oldie songs and ambience...seems to have brought us back to history haha...later we set off a huge Tian Deng(天燈) at the nearest shop from the train station...it was very fun...and we wrote loads of rubbbish on it haha...一路順風 etc...and it is quite a new experience i will say...the shop owner was really friendly and we stayed around the shop eating ice-creams and taking pictures while waiting for the 2nd last train to come...back to Ruifang and then took the bus up to Jiufen...most of the stalls are already closed by around 9pm...but the night view of Jiufen town seem to give you a totally different feelings as compared to during the day...and that was why we wanted to stay overnight there too in the first place =) ...went back to our minsu to take a hot bath and rest...then went to the top floor balcony to brew tea...relax and chat while enjoying the nice night scenery of the surroundings...

Travel Informations
Ruifang Scenic Area Brochure (Inside)
Ruifang Scenic Area Brochure (Outside)

our lunches for the day with lots of dumplings