June 30

We had one last day in Jilong and we were trying to decide what to do. Our options were to go to two mining villages about 1 hour by bus away or to stick around the city of Jilong and just have a more laid back day. We decided to go out to the little villages and I am so glad we did. The villages were Jiufen and Jinguashi.

We had to get out early and catch another bus. This one was another crowded one and so several of us had to stand the whole way. About an hour ride later we were in Jiufen. This was a very beautiful little village. It was built right on the side of a mountain. The whole area had several jungle covered hills or mountains that rise sharply out of the ocean. The highlight of this village is its old street. It is a narrow little street that winds up and down the hillside between shops. They have the whole street covered, but in a way that still feels open. There were hundreds of little shops all selling different little interesting things. We tried an ice cream burrito (a thin crepe type shell, ground peanuts, vanilla ice cream, then a little bit of cilantro) and almond milk (I couldn’t decide which was better – the amazing smell of the shop or the delicious taste of the milk). There were also lots of other samples of things that we tried, including squid, tiny little fishes, and peanut bars. One of the prettiest buildings in the city is a tea house. It seemed to be the iconic old Chinese building right up against the rest of the village and the hillside. I guess this particular tea house served as the inspiration of the movie Spirited Away, and we saw shops taking advantage of that fact throughout the village. 

After walking through the village for maybe 2 hours, we decided to make our way to the second village. We planned on walking to it. After walking for about an hour in the hot sun up a mountainside, I found someone and asked directions. I guess I had missed the turn that we should have taken right outside the first village. So we walked all the way back down and then set off on the right path. After walking for a while a bus stopped and asked if we wanted to board. I told him the village that we wanted to go to and he said it was still another 40 minutes away, so we should definitely get on. We did, and then two minutes later we were there. Luckily buses are cheap here. 

In this second village we went first to a gold mining museum/park. It had some pretty cool buildings (some small Japanese houses from the time, a larger house that was built for the Japanese prince when the village was expecting a visit from him – he never came though, and some educational buildings on when the village was used by the Japanese as a POW camp for the British during WWII – I guess they made them work the mines). But the highlight of the village was being able to see and touch the world’s largest gold bar. I think that claim is outdated though as I think Mitsubishi in Japan recently made a larger one. They had a cool digital display showing how much it was worth and it read almost 9 million US dollars. 

After that we walked to the Golden Waterfall. This time I asked several people for direction before we headed out, so we ended up making it there without much complication. This waterfall wasn’t all that large, but its fame comes from the coper color of the rock all around it. It was right along the side of the road, so there wasn’t much to do there other than look at it for about 10 minutes. 

Then, another walk to the highway by the ocean to catch the bus home. Right at the ocean though there is a great view of a dilapidated gold smelting building that had 13 levels that lead from it down the hill to the Oceanside. It was pretty cool looking and I guess it has been in several movies and music videos. We caught the bus home after that (another really crowded one, but several people gave up their seats so our kids could sit down). 

Back at Jilong we went to the night market one last time and got some really yummy treats to eat. It was a nice way to finish off our last day in this city.

Jilong is a port city and would often have these giant cruise ships in the harbor. The kids kept on telling us that they would like our next vacation to be a cruise.



We got a really cushy bus on the way there.




The city was set right in the mountains. It had some great views.












The ice cream burrito.




Almond milk.




Walking through the old streets.
















The famed tea house.




At an old theater. There were lots of displays talking about the important role this theater played in the history of the town.






Making our way to the second city.




Walking through the Japanese style homes.





















Touching one of the largest gold bars in the world. There was pretty much no security here. Just an old lady that was more there to answer questions than to make sure no one stole the gold.












When the boys saw this statue they quickly posed like it and told me to take a picture.






The golden waterfall.










This was one of my favorite meals when I was a missionary. It is potstickers, but they are long and then fried. We would get them all the time and you could buy them everywhere. However, when we were in Taiwan for this trip, this was the only time I saw them.