Jiufen, New Taipei City - Spirited Away teahouse

-
Jiufen (Jioufen; 九份) - the town which may or may not have been an inspiration for Spirited Away. The streets are full of stands/stores and are decorated with red lanterns. I guess it has a "classic Asian" look, for lack of a better descriptor. 

To be honest, Jiufen was a little too crowded with tourists for me, though I guess it was worth going once. My friends went to the teahouse and learned how to properly make tea - they enjoyed it a lot! I probably should have made myself join them in the teahouse too, since I'm unlikely to visit again... but I needed a break from being around so many people. Instead, I went to a little crane game place more on the outskirts of the town (I was even able to win a bunch of souvenirs to take back for friends/family/coworkers :). October 2019.

This might be a little confusing, but Jiufen is technically in New Taipei City. We didn't go there directly from Taipei, but if you do, it sounds like it's pretty straightforward to get there; a little more than an hour bus ride each way.

The teahouse! Took us a little bit of effort to find (the rain didn't help)...




Temple close to the place we stayed overnight

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

British airline

-
Image
"Christmas dinner or [other normal dish]?" "What's Christmas dinner?"  "Turkey"  "British breakfast or frittata?"  ...not going to bother to ask... (nor do I remember what the breakfast had! But it was fine) (Not going to mention the airline because I don't like them! Even though the food was okay. I only used them because I had some points but in the end I didn't save any money. Also, if you try searching for Taiwan it populates "Taiwan, China" 😠) Random picture from inside LHR 
Read more

Elevator conversation

-
In Taiwan: a nice older lady gets on the elevator. Conversation in Chinese (strangers often speak to each other in elevators there): Older Lady: Have you eaten yet?  Me: oh yes, I've eaten OL: Eat more fruits and vegetables Me: What about you, have you eaten yet? OL: I'm going to go buy bread
Read more

Sun Moon Lake and Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village

-
Image
Even though one of the most well-known tourist spots in Nantou County (and possibly Taiwan in general) is Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), I only went for the first time during my last trip to Taiwan. The lake itself is quite nice. There should be places where you can rent bikes or scooters to go around, though I didn't see any where I was. There's also a ropeway that connects the lake to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村), which is an amusement park with museums, roller coasters, shows, games, and lovely trails. It's a great place to learn about Taiwanese aborigines. I hadn't heard of the amusement park before, so I only planned a one-day visit of the lake and we spent half the day in each place. I think that the amount of time to see both places was about right since our itinerary was already pretty full, but it wouldn't have been boring to stay longer either. One reason I finally decided to go this time is because my dad was also back in Taiwan and he drove us. ...
Read more