Jiufen | 九份
Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
We walked out and got our bags before heading the the bus stop to get a ride to Jiufen. We saw our bus left as we were walking out and we waited for the next one. There was quite a number of bus service that was running form Jinguashi to Jiufen. But we wanted to make full use of our day pass so we waited for the next bus only to have it go pass us without even stopping. We were left with no choice as that was the last bus and we took a random local bus that went towards Jiufen.
The mingsu that we were staying at was located a short distance from Jiufen old street. The bus driver who was super cranky asked us with much rage which bus stop we wanted to stop at and we were hoping that he would tell us when we reached out stop. Obviously he didn’t as I our bus passed by our mingsu and I hurriedly pressed the bell that stopped us at the next stop. On a hindsight it was good that we missed our stop as the mingsu location on google maps was inaccurate. We stopped and walked up the side of the road towards our mingsu.
We stayed at Huiming Mingsu for the night. It was quite a disappointment as the rooms was quite small and old looking. The mingsu didn’t have a water dispenser as well.
The owner of the mingsu was super nice though. We arrived together with another group of visitors and he gave us a simple briefing as to what we can see in Jiufen, the various places of interest as well as the legendary tea house that inspired Spirited Away, and even gave us tips as to where we can photograph the tea house.
It was rather late when we arrived at Jiufen, so we walked up the steps at the back of the mingsu which let us to the start of the old street.
The rain dampened the whole mood of the place as it just felt rather wet and damp. And because we arrived quite late, the shops were all closing.
We found the legendary tea house (Ah Mei Teahouse) after a while, and even with directions from the owner of the mingsu, we passed by the turning the first time and it was only when we walked back did we find this small alley way with steps leading down towards the row of teahouse.
Dinner was settled at one of the restaurants. Not that all fancy, but it was good enough to fill our stomach for the night. We brought our usual round of snacks from Family Mart before heading back to our mingsu to rest for the night.
We woke up in the morning and headed to the old street in hope to find some breakfast. We were told that the shops at the old street opens at 8am, and when we were there at 9+, most of the shops were still closed. We walked into a random shop selling meat balls and had our breakfast there.
We headed back to our mingsu and checked out. We walked to the bus stop where we alighted the day before and hopped on the bus that got us to Ruifang Train Station.