The spell of Jiufen

During our last night in Taipei, we weren’t too sure whether we had enough time to visit Jiufen (九份) due to our rather tight itinerary. But we did manage to squeeze in Jiufen into our must-visit places in Taiwan and I was really, really glad that I didn’t miss out this wonderful town. The name Jiufen (九份) literally means ‘nine portions’. We arrived at Jiufen around dinner time and dusk was settling down fast. According to our tour guide, Jiufen was once a bustling mining town during the Japanese occupation period in Taiwan but as its natural resources depleted, the town declined rapidly in significance and soon forgotten. But thanks to films like Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winning anime movie “Spirited Away” the town was once again revived. I totally love the movie “Spirited Away” and I was thrilled to find out that some scenes from the film were inspired by the quaint town of Jiufen. Roaming the streets of Jiufen really made me feel like I was “spirited away” into the 50′s era due to the setting of the town. Red lanterns hung overhead in every streets and corners. Classic tea houses are apparently a common sight here. Eateries furnished with wooden stools, old-fashioned cutlery and tea sets complemented the whole idea of a town far away from modernisation. Nondescript shop houses and foot stalls occupied every space available. I was walking around hunting for some typical Taiwanese food and came upon this stall selling something that I’ve never seen nor tried before, an ice-cream-peanuts-coriander-wrap for 35yuan (about 3.5MYR). The taste was absolutely heavenly. I wanted to come back for more but unfortunately it was closed after my stroll around town. Before you leave this town, you should try a bowl of this glass noodle soup with fishballs. The soup was sweet with the goodness of fish stock and the glass noodles were too tasty. I definitely would recommend that you visit this town just before dusk and see the transformation of the town from day to night when the lanterns started to twinkle against the dimming sky. It was all too magical.