DAY 08 - 九份

Yesterday's trip to 淡水 was fabulous and today we are heading to another old town - 九份. We looked forward to this trip greatly as 九份's alluring old town charm captivated us so much that till today, the streets, scenary and snacks were still lingering in our minds.

I first got to know about 九份 through Taiwan's famous director - 侯孝贤's award-winning movie, 悲情城市. This entire movie was shot in 九份 and the melancholy charm wowed the world when it was shown in 1989. Before that, 九份 was a long forsaken copper and gold mining ghost town. This movie revived 九份 and since then, throngs of tourists flocked to 九份 every year.

Today is a Saturday and expectedly, train tickets to 九份 were snapped out fast. We could only get standing tickets but luckily, the train ride was only 1 hour.

Directions to 九份:
o http://wikitravel.org/en/Jiufen

Option 1: Train
o Taipei Train Station → 瑞芳 Train Station → Cross the road → Take a "九份/金瓜石" bus → Alight at the 7-11 九份 stop

    Taipei Train Station → 瑞芳 Train Station:
       - Cost of train: NT$80
       - Duration of train: 1 hr

    "九份/金瓜石" bus to 九份:
       - Cost of bus: NT$19
       - Duration of bus: 10-15mins
       - View is better on the left seats of the bus driver

Option 2: Bus
o 松山車站 or 忠孝復兴站 Exit 1 → "九份/金瓜石" Bus
      - Duration of Bus: 1.5hr
      - Cost of Bus: NT$90

Option 3: From 基隆
o Opposite 基隆站 → "九份/金瓜石" Bus
      - Cost of Bus: NT$55

We went for Option 1 and upon reaching 瑞芳 Train Station, we had to walk through an underpass to get to the road to take the "九份/金瓜石" bus.

There are a lot of pictures lining the sides of the underpass, illustrating the copper and gold mining history of 九份. It looked like a history tour to us haha .. interesting ..


There are a lot of "九份/金瓜石" buses at the main road and you do not have to worry about missing the bus at all.

Once you board the bus, remember to take the seats on the left side of the bus driver. You will be guaranteed of magnificent views that are going to appear before your eyes hehe ..

Tonnes of tourists boarded the bus and almost every "九份/金瓜石" bus was packed with commuters. Gosh, I dare not imagine the crowd that we will see when we reach 九份, can only hope that there are sufficient walking space along the narrow lanes *cross fingers*.

As 九份 is in a mountainous region, hence we had to take a winding path, round and round the mountain before we can reach 九份.

This is the winding path that all the vehicles have to go through. Now you understand why I advised you to take the left seats hehe ...

Looking out of the window, this is the beautiful backdrop that welcomed us .. oohhhh feast to our eyes and the weather is good today !!


We got more and more excited as we approached 九份 and upon alighting, we saw a lot of tourists jamming up the entrance to 基山街 which is the old street of 九份. On the left of the entrance is the famous 李仪饼家.

If you still remember 李鵠餅店 which I mentioned in the blog of Day 07, 李仪 is the son of 李鵠. Both father and son are great at making cookies and while 李鵠 is great at making pineapple cakes, 李仪 is a master of 太阳饼. Both are successful in their own arena and their businesses complement each other.

For those of you who are keen to try 李仪饼家太阳饼 but do not have the time to pop by 九份, not to worry. They have a branch at 台北 too and their 台北 address is as below:

Address of 李仪饼家:
o 九份: along the main road, diagonally opposite the 7-11 stop
o 台北: 台北站*站前*地下街11-2B

On the right of the entrance is a pavilion for tourists to take a break and admire the beautiful mountainous view of 九份. It is also a great photo shooting spot for photography aficionados. Houses by the cliff, lush green forest, clear blue sky and vast open sea, you name it, 九份 has it haha ..

The tunnels that peeped out from afar illustrate how accessible transport is to 九份. 九份 is no longer the old abandoned town.

Before more people flood 九份, we decided to begin our excursion. 九份 is still as charming as before. A lot of old shops are still here and in addition, there are new kids on the block too such as 阿原肥皂 and 香草铺子. These 2 shops were featured in travel documentary shows recently such as Discovery Travel – Fun Taiwan. Both shops sell interesting products which are very popular among the tourists and locals.

The boss of 阿原肥皂, 阿原, used to have very bad complexion. Despite visits to the dermatologists, adventurous exploration of skincare products and meticulous care of his complexion, his skin condition still did not improve. Hence in an act of desperation, 阿原 decided to come up with his own organic soap. Finally after many failures, he managed to derive the winning formula and from there, the success of his soap business ensued. His soaps are really fragrant and the fragrance enveloped the entire shop. Refreshing and energizing .. =)

As for 香草铺子, it was started by 2 young women. Most of their products are derived from lavender and the shop’s concept is very interesting and eye-catching. Their flagship shop is hidden in 台中 suburbs and you need great patience to locate it.

We tried some snacks along the way and Eugene’s favourite is the peanut roll with ice cream, 花生捲加冰淇淋. It looks like our popiah except that the ingredients are different. Shaved peanut and ice cream are wrapped together and it really tickled our taste buds. Eugene dashed to this shop when he saw it. It is the same shop that we tried 3 years back and the shop front still looks the same. So nice to come back here again .. hehe ..

From far we saw that there was a LONG queue at  阿兰 shop which sells a lot of kuehs. Since there was a queue, it must be good isn’t it? Being a typical Singaporean and Teochew ah nia, I joined the queue too and bought some yam cakes to try. We were quite disappointed after the first bite. There wasn’t anything fantastic about it and in fact I feel that Singapore’s yam cakes taste much better. *sigh* this is what we call the blind leading the blind.

At the corner, we came to another street of 九份- 坚崎路. As the name implies, this road is full of steep slopes and steps. Look at the uphill, it really tone our leg muscles right? Haha ..

There are a lot of tea houses at 坚崎路 and to name a few, there are 悲情城市小上海茶楼 which is located at 35 坚崎路. This tea house was featured in 悲情城市. Another popular tea house is 九份茶坊 at 142 基山街 which is the first tea house in 九份. Also not forgetting the ever so packed tea house – 阿妹茶馆.

九份 has a rustic feel and to drink tea at the authentic tea houses really bring out the poetic side of us haha ..

The big signboard at 阿妹茶馆, you will not miss it.

Unknowingly, we walked into the residential area of 九份 and there are a lot of 民宿 (homestay) here. 民宿 is becoming a trend in Taiwan and even though the rates are on the pricey end, the transquil and exclusive surroundings as well as individualistic concept of the lodges are enough to make you come back for more.

When it comes to photography, the professionals will always encourage human elements in your picture to bring up the life in it. However at 九份, human elements simply do not work! No matter how hard I tried to compose, somehow there will be somebody’s hand, somebody’s hair or somebody’s leg peeping out somewhere from the corner of my pictures, hence you can imagine how crowded 九份 was today.

We gave up and before the crowd took up all the seats in the eateries, we decided to head back to 基山街 to fill our stomachs. Out of desperation, we walked into an eatery without knowing what it had to offer haha .. the 2 empty seats there simply lured me in haha ..

This eatery sells fishball soup and noodles and the 福州丸 is really BIG. The filling is solid and the soup is very tasty. What a pleasant surprise for us hehe .. yummy !!

In a state of hastiness, we left the eatery after eating and I forgot to take down the name of this eatery. All I know is it is located next to a shop called 阿信的店 and should I visit Taiwan again, I will definitely pop in this eatery once more.

As we had covered most of the streets of 九份, hence we decided to bid it farewell.

Directions back to 台北:
Option 1: Train
o  Take the bus opposite 7-11 to go back to 瑞芳 Train Station → Taipei Train Station
o  Duration of Train: 1 hr

Option 2: Bus
o  Take the direct bus opposite 7-11 → Alight at 忠孝復兴站
o  Duration of Bus: 1 hr

We would advise to go for Option 2 as it is a cheaper, faster and more straightforward way of going back to 台北. You do not have to switch to a train and you get to see nice scenary along the way. We actually planned to go for Option 1 but was advised wrongly by the bus driver that we were on the right bus. Ended up we did not realise the bus was not bound for 瑞芳 Train Station and headed back to 台北 directly. Another pleasant surprise for us today hehe ..

As it was too late to explore other touristy areas such as 野柳, hence we popped by 光华商场 again. Eugene could not resist the temptation and bought a Shuttle PC. It was really much cheaper than that of Singapore and Eugene was so happy with his good buy.

We carried the Shuttle PC back to our hotel first before heading out for dinner. Looking at the pile of items that need to be hand-carried (including the Shuttle PC and boxes of 太阳饼!), it will be a nightmare for us on the day of departure. =(

Eugene’s colleague in Singapore mentioned that there is a nice Korean restaurant near our hotel but he forgot its name. We explored around our vicinity and could only find one Korean restaurant and decided to take our chance. After all, we had a lot of pleasant surprises today and who knows this will be another one? Hehe ..

I ordered seafood ramen and Eugene ordered a BiBimBab. Lucky for us, both tasted good and my seafood ramen was very good .. *burp* .. haha ..

We did a lot of walking today and by the time we reached the hotel, we konked out shortly. Tomorrow will be a long day as we intend to cover 乌来, 野柳 and 基隆. Pretty ambitious but tomorrow will be the last full day in Taiwan and we must grab all chances to cover these 3 scenic areas. Sound like Amazing Race ya ?? haha .. ganbatte !! =)