This is the second part of my story, ‘Trip to Taiwan’. You can refer to Part 1 if you want to know more about where to go in Taiwan.
Day 3 (Jinguashi – Shifen Old Street – Jiufen – Yehliu Geopark – Raohe St. Night Market)
Before departing from Korea, we reserved a bus tour that would take us to other tourist attractions far away from the central zone of Taipei. ‘Jinguashi’, ‘Shifen Old Street’, ‘Jiufen’, and ‘Yehliu Geopark’ were the selections we made. These places are located so close to each other that it would be better to go around at a time through bus or taxi tour. The price of taxi tour is a little bit more expensive than that of bus tour, but I personally recommend you to take a bus. Even though you can’t take off on the way when you want to take pictures of beautiful scene, you can save more than a half of the expenses by taking a bus!
- Jinguashi
About one hour away from ‘Taiwan Main Station’, we arrived to ‘Jinguashi’ at first. Jinguashi, located in the Ruifang District of New Taipei City, is famous for its gold and copper mines. Situated between the mountains and the coastline, you can see gorgeous beautiful scenery and nature. There is a popular food that the majority of people don’t miss out, ‘Packed lunch for miners’. Also, the apple mango juice without any sugar or artificial seasoning would be one of the good desserts (The third picture above).
- Shifen Old Street
Then, we headed to the ‘Shifen Old Street’. Originally, it has been heard that this place was built to transport coal through railroad, but now has transformed to an internationally renowned railway. Set by Shifen Railway Station, Shifen Old Street is filled mainly by sky lantern and souvenir shops, grocery stores and restaurants on both sides of the railway. At there, you can have a precious experience by lighting a sky lantern. To illustrate the sky lantern in detail, draw or write any letters or pictures on four sides of the big colored paper. Then, by lighting the prepared lantern inside of the paper, fly it out to the sky! The picture above can help you reach an understanding of what I am saying.
- Jiufen
Hopping in the bus again, we moved to the ‘Jiufen’. Here is the place where ‘Grandpas over Flowers in Taiwan’ has been broadcasted. Also the movie ‘The spirit away of Sen and Chihiro’ made in Japan has been filmed at this place. That’s why so many Japanese are coming here to see here in person. When the darkness falls upon this village, lots of red lights appears before you. It’s a must see scene that you will remember throughout your entire life.
- Yehliu geopark
As the final destination, we came to ‘Yehliu geopark’, famous for its sea-erosion landscape. Yehliu Geopark is divided into three sections due to numerous distinctive rocks. To satisfy your curiosity, some photos are posted above. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see them at all by a terrible luck of bad weather.
- Raohe St. Night Market
That’s all for my bus tour story. However, in order to use our time wisely and to go to as many attractions as possible, we went to another night market other than the one we visited the day before. It is called ‘Raohe St. Night Market’. Unlike the ‘Shilin Night Market’, it is mainly composed of Taiwanese people rather than tourists coming from other countries. So we could feel the local atmosphere and which food they are eating.
Day 4 (Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall – Kiki Restaurant)
This was the final day when we could go to attractions since we were supposed to leave early in the morning. So we decided to save our energy and went to only one place, the ‘Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall’. It is a national monument in memory of Chiang Kai-Shek, the former President of the Republic of China. Referring to the detailed description through Wikipedia, the ground level of the memorial houses a library and museum documenting Chiang Kai-Shek’s life and career and exhibits related to Taiwan’s history and development. On the upper level, it contains the main hall, in which a large statue of Chiang Kai-Shek is located. The size of the monument is too enormous that we couldn’t walk around the outside of the landmarks.
- Kiki Restaurant
In the evening, we departed from there and headed to the ‘Kiki Restaurant’. There are over 6 branches in Taipei due to its popularity. These three pictures above are the main dishes that most of Koreans regard as the best. In fact, those were as tasty as they say, but we didn’t expect that they were served in big portions. The quality of service is great as well. If you have a plan going for Taiwan, refer to more websites to get abundant information.
Day 5 (Home sweet home)
My friend and I safely arrived to Korea, and we returned to our normal life!
This is all what we saw and what we ate during our trip. Hope this article would be helpful for all of you planning a trip to Taiwan!
Article by SooJung, a Junior in Business Administration
myHUBS 
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