Let's go to Jiufen (九份)!

It was a great day one weekend and we decided to go on a road trip again! This time we went to Jiufen, a quaint little town just one and a half hours drive from Taipei city. Jiufen is a mountainous town with steep, curvy and narrow roads and as usual, I got car sick and threw up in the car once we arrived.



Jiu Fen means "nine portions" in Chinese and the town was named so because it used to house nine families and these nine households would order nine portions every time shipments arrived from town.


The view was fantastic, it looked almost surreal.

Jiufen used to be a prosperous gold mining town, but it quickly declined after the mining discontinued. Fortunately, the quaint streets, tea houses and stunning views of the Pacific Ocean saved it from becoming yet another anonymous mining ghost town. In 1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien's film, A City of Sadness set in Jiufen became a big hit. The nostalgic scenery of Jiufen in the film attracted many visitors and Jiufen became a tourist attraction. Jiufen again came into the limelight in 2001 when its downtown was used as a model in the anime movie, Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki.


I will never visit Jiufen on a weekend again, the streets were all sardine-packed with tourists, it was very difficult to walk comfortably and I got molested several times. :(

There are so many things to eat in Jiufen!


Delicious beef noodles in herbal soup.


Desserts with sweet potatop and taro balls.


Spicy fried anchovies.


Fruit flavored jellies.


Yam cake (芋粿) and cudweed cake (草仔粿).


Some interesting snacks.


Many interesting alleys to explore.


Golden retriever stone dogs for sale!


Someone wants to get in the picture too!


So many stairs to climb!


And old stone houses to see.



This restaurant called City Of Sadness Restaurant (悲情城市小上海茶樓), was featured in the film, A City Of Sadness, which won the Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice Film Festival.


The famous flight of stairs.


What is everyone looking at?


Ah! A movie poster! Many period films were set in Jiufen.


Posing on the stairs.


Posing with a tourist.


Time for a coffee break!

Nice view of the mountain from the cafe.


Me and the mountain.



One more shot on the chair.



Shots with my favorite humans.


That's a cute Winnie the Pooh!


The gold miner and the golden retriever!


Saying hello to a little friend.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip to Jiufen with me!

Thank you all for your kind words about my weight, but it has been confirmed that I am overweight. 40kg/88lbs! I have put on 6kg/13lbs in a year! Shocking! Life in Taipei must be good! I better shed some of that excess weight before summer comes. Time to work out again!