Saturday 8 June 2013

Taipei Day 2 : Jiufen (九份) & Shilin Night Market (士林夜市)

Day 2

The breathtaking scenery of Jiufen (九份)




Today is the day whereby we will go slightly outskirt from Taipei city itself.

We'll be going to Jiufen (九份), which used to be a prosperous gold mining town on top of the mountain. It is a small town in North Taiwan built into the side of the hills; slightly inland from the Pasific Ocean coastline. The main area of the town is easily to covered on foot by two pedestrian streets which is  

: a) Jishan Street (基山街 )
: b) Shuchi (Shuqi) Street (豎崎路)
 
The scenery here is totally breathtaking. If you're staying longer in Taipei, staying overnight here in Jiufen (九份) is amazing ! Imagine, the moment you woke up, the only scenery you saw was the breathtaking picture as above with the cold morning breeze. What an amazing day to start with !

From Taipei Main Station, take the north train to RuiFang Station which cost NT$49 (RM 5.09) one way. We did not buy return ticket as we did not want our journey to be tight down by the time.

The railway
They even have female zone :)

At last reach RuiFang Station
The many signboards to lead you towards your destination.

Arrow to show you where is the bus stop to jiufen
 From RuiFang Station, walk towards the mainroad and turn left and walk slightly further up until you pass a police station. The busstop heading towards Jiufen & Jinguashi is located a little past the police station. The bus trip is roughly around 15 minutes, and the fare is NT$ 21  (RM 2.18) during weekday, NT$ 15 (RM 1.50) during weekends or holidays.. If you're still unsure where the bus stop is, try asking the locals for direction.





Inside the bus towards JiuFen.
Once we reach Jiufen, we were too hungry and stop for desert ...

Sweet & Delicious

Enjoying her desert.

The place was totally jam-packed with human

At Jiufen, little small amazing town.
Cute cute handcraft for you to make ur own animal

Some buah tangan?

This small Cheongsam cost NT$ 400 (RM 41.61).. Expensive!

Various cute magnet

Key Chain to choose

Cute Cute design

Postcard that can be turn into small design as above.

Ice Kacang Machine postcard.

Small broom for you to sweep ?

It was so tiny...what you wan to sweep with that?

Lollypop for NT$ 25 (RM 2.60)

Antique Cho-Cho Train

I love checking out antique stuff

They even have Tiny Antique ToiletBowl Sharpener. Haha
Various Heavy Postcard

I just love magnets.

Something heavy & thick to send as a postcard

Puzzle

Cute Vintage Notebook

Some nice chinese words.
We stop by to have our favourite food... Pork Rice..

I just love taiwanese Pork Rice !

This is the famous shop that we have our pork rice
Many Taiwanese Artists came here before

With the Lady Owner.

Time passes fast and we didn't know we have spend nearly 3 hours in the small town itself.
Our original plan was to go Jiufen (九份) , Jinguanshi & ShiFen. But due to the time constraint, we have decided to forgo our plan to release our Kong Ming Lantern Tian Deng & to check out another small old village at shifen and go back to taipei for our Shilin Night Market.

To get there, take MRT Dansui Line to Jiantan Station. Once you reach there, follow the crowd and you will reach the famous Shilin Night Market. And this is where i really spend a lot on my shopping! 
Where should we go?

Hmmmmmm...still thinking?

Varieties of food to choose at this night market

Again, it is pack with shoppers

I happily bought myself some clothes !

Shoes for NT$ 189 (RM 19.66)

How can someone resist such a cheap shoes ! RM 19.66 for a pair! Sadly all the shops here is mostly paid by cash. Normally i am not a shopper myself as i hardly shop at all so i normally exchange RM 500 as my currency exchange for transport, food & light shopping. Didn't realise this round i'm nearly out of cash on my 2nd Day ! So i tried my best not to purchase too much stuff and planning to exchange a little more money the next day !

Didn't realise this trip we spend our time more on our shopping and less time to our earlier planned itinerary to visit places such as :

a) Miniatures Museum of Taiwan  http://www.mmot.com.tw/4-1-en.htm
b) Taipei 101
c) Jay Chou Restaurant http://reviews.noobcook.com/mr-j-ii/
d) WuFenPu (The biggest market of fashion and cheap clothes in Taiwan )
e) Raohe Night Market (Wholesale Night Market)
f) JinGuanShi
g) Shifen
h) Dihua Street (one of the oldest streets in Taipei with a whole stretch of nicely preserved historical buildings)
i) Xiahai City God Temple (Matchmaking temple...hehe)
j) Taipei Storey house  http://www.storyhouse.com.tw/main/modules/MySpace/index.php?sn=storyhouse&cn=ZC23204
k) Bopiliao Old Street (interesting place with historical buildings and stores as well as the creative art works)
l) Fu-Hang Dou Jiang 阜杭豆漿 (Cheap cosmetic shopping)
m) Lover's Bridge & Fisherman's Whaft
n) museum of weird stuff http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/fc576/
o) Beitou Hot Spring
p) Yehliu  Geopark

And all this is all in taipei city itself ! So many interesting places to go but so little time :*(

Nevertheless, tomorrow will be our last day to really shop before flying off on the 4th Day.


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