Taiwan Day 16: Jioufen and Keelung

Day Sixteen

Having explored Taipei City quite thoroughly the past two weeks, Hui Chee, Olivia and I finally left Taipei City! We started our day early at 8am to go to Zhongxiao Fuxing Road MRT Station. There,  we transferred to take the 1062 bus that goes to Jioufen. The ride was 1.5 hours long and I recommend sitting on the left side of the bus for the best scenery!

Jioufen

Previously, I did not know what to expect out of Jioufen but it was beautiful and reminded me of Japan. We went to the Jioufen Old Street which was full of souvenir and food stores. There were cookies, jerky and teas to try as you walk down the street.

Jioufen Old Street

Shaved ice with mochis

Fishballs in soup

After exploring the old street, we took a short bus ride to Jingguashi's gold mine museum. There was no admission fee for the place itself but individual exhibits like the tunnel one had an admission fee.

Touching a block of gold!

From Jingguashi we took a half hour bus to Keelung and switched to another local bus that took us to Heping Island Park (Peace Island Park).

Keelung

The park had an admission fee of NT60 for adults and NT40 for concession price. From the entrance it doesn't look that spectacular but the scenic view inside was beautiful.

Heping Island Park

Proud Canadians

It was late in the afternoon and the sun was peeking through the clouds. There was a slight breeze by the water that felt fabulous in the humid air.

We headed back to Keelung to visit the famous Miaokou Nightmarket! It is not very large but the food sold here has some variety compared to the ones in Taipei. I got four pieces of sushi for NT10 each, one whole sliced mango for NT50 and pig blood rice cake for NT10. I was skeptical to try the pig blood rice cake at first but after seeing it sold at so many nightmarkets I felt that I needed to give it a try. Turns out that it just tasted like very salty rice cake.

Miaokou nightmarket

To return to Taipei from Keelung we opted for the railway train. The ride was about an hour and quite confusing because there was no announcement inside the train for the name of each stop and the signs of the station aren't always clear.

Cannot wait to explore more of this island!

Take care,