Our trip to lovely Jiufen 九份

A mountain village in northern Taiwan

A friend of ours recommended us to see a lovely mountain town in northern Taiwan named Jiufen (九份), which is about an hour and a half away from Taipei City. My girlfriend knew the place instantly, because she used to visit it in the past many times. We had to take the train to Ruifang, an old mining town beneath the famous mountain resort and then take a bus from there. I think we needed more than an hour before we finally set foot in what proved to be one of the most amazing Taiwanese small towns.

Jiufen, sometimes spelled as Jioufen or Chiufen, (pronounced Jiǔfèn, in Japanaese 九フン) became famous in the late 19th century, because of the gold that was discovered near by. At that time, Taiwan was under Japanese rule and many buildings reflect that era (source). And that's why there's a lot of Japanese tourists visiting Jiufen. The town is also famous for the excellent tea and there are teahouses everywhere around town. And the waitresses speak Japanese, too. The whole town focuses a lot on Japanese tourists, but there are also many Koreans visiting recently, because a Korean drama was shot here.

Take a tour around the beautiful Jiufen with me:

The first view of Jiufen on a foggy and cold winter day.

After taking several photos of the wonderful view on the houses on the hill, we decided to go to the central part. There's a street full of tourists. It's really crowded. Food and souvenirs are sold there. Have a look:

The overly crowded main street, full of tourists.

All this is located on more than 300m above sea level.

The street is not so long. And it's very narrow, you just can't avoid the crowds.

They sell all kinds of food and lots of souvenirs.

More food. Yummy? Maybe. Next time I have to try it.

Slowly coming to the end of the street and out in the open.

We saw so many cute cats. My girlfriend captured these two funny fellows.

The view on Jiufen again. We couldn't stop making photos of it.

Teahouses on the right. The mountain on the left is above 500m.

The fog covered the view of the sea. Jiufen has a great view of the Pacific ocean.

Would you live here?

View on Jiufen again.

The opposite side.

The main temple in Jiufen. There are also 2 big temples built on the hill below the town.

A smaller building close to the main part.

The main entrance, looks so rich in colors, so majestic.

A view inside the temple.

After we saw the temple, we decided to head down and try some of their famous tea. So we had to find a nice teahouse. But there are so many to choose from.

When going down, we saw funny faces on a wall.

Off to the famous teahouses in Jiufen!

We chose this one, we wanted to try the great Taiwanese tea.

A view down from the terrace of the teahouse we chose.

The menu. What to choose... hmm...

An abandoned terrace of a teahouse below. So bad we couldn't see the sea, it was so foggy.

The view up: Tourists and more teahouses.

My girlfriend chose this excellent tea: Jin Shuan Oolong Tea (金萱烏龍茶 in Chinese).

She also ordered pastry with tea leaves inside. The tea was mild at first, I liked it.

A Japanese tourist on the left, the waitresses on the right.

A view from the teahouse. We soon left the place.

Lovely tourists from Hong Kong taking photos. We did the same.

The last view of this lovely town before we left.

We took the bus here to go back to the train station in the town below.

And then we were back to the gloomy Ruifang.

We walked around Ruifang a little, had something to eat at their night market. After that left back to Taipei City. It was really a great trip for us. We took a lot of amazing photos of this incredible town and tried their excellent and high-quality tea, but most importantly we spent a whole day together and shared precious moments that we will never forget.

Jiufen is small and one afternoon is enough for you to explore it. The food is yummy, even if you just try some snacks, you'll have a great experience. The tea is amazing, but it comes with a price. It will cost you 500TWD or more. Together with the delicious pastry it cost us around 800TWD (which is nearly 20€). If you go in summer, the sky will be clearer and you can see the beautiful sea, which we sadly couldn't see this time, it was too foggy. Jiufen is a place definitely worth to see, especially if you visit Taipei. But there are many tourists, so be ready for that. I love Jiufen and hope that one day I can visit again.

[My TAIWAN page][TAIPEI][Jin Shuan Oolong Tea info][All photos by MKL, 2010]