Pingxi 平溪 and Jiufen 九份 Weekend

This past weekend another adventure, I spent the weekend in Taipei where we went to Pingxi (平溪) and Jiufen (九份). When we got to the hostel I knew something was wrong turns out there were no real beds instead we slept on the floor. After we got settled in the hostel we were going to go to Jiufen which is an older town located north of Taipei  in the mountains. We got to Jiufen and went to look around especially for traditional shops because it is what Jiufen is known for. Starting to look around a lot of the shops were starting to close but there was a traditional feeling when walking around the streets that I haven’t found in any other city. Once we bought gifts and looked around the town it was time to go back to Taipei and get ready for Saturday when we were going to go to Pingxi.

Saturday Aug 3^rd  after sleeping on the wood floor we were ready to go and see Pingxi. When buying the train ticket we made sure that we got the one where you could get off at different stops to see different things. Heading to Pingxi the first stop we got off at was Shifen (十分) that was known for having beautiful waterfall. When looking at a map it wasn’t clear how to get to so we took a taxi to get there but when we got there we walked through many bridges and climbed many stairs. But when we got to the Shifen Waterfall it was such a beautiful vivid color of green because of all the algae that I didn’t expect.

After we were done at the waterfall we found the same the taxi driver and he took us down the mountain and told us that the Shifen lanterns were better than the Pingxi lanterns. We were originally going to Pingxi to light a lantern but then decided that we would light a lantern in Shifen instead. Heading over to make a lantern we picked one with different colors and each color meant something different. Once we pick our lantern color that had 4 different meanings we decided that 2 sides we would write in Chinese and the other 2 sides would be in English. Once we were done writing on all sides a lantern worker came to light the lantern and take our picture. It was really fun to light a lantern and see it fly. After the lantern floated away we were back on the train to Pingxi which had the same feel as Shifen. So we looked around the shops and headed back to the train where we would have to switch trains or take a bus back to Taipei.

Sunday I wanted to go to the National  Palace Museum in Taipei but since it was summer it was really busy really but still fun to see. Since we were students studying in Taiwan we could go see the museum for free. My favorite pieces would have to be the scrolls and the paintings because all the detailed work would have taken time and patience to get the pictures to look life like.  It was incredible to see that many years of history preserved. After looking at all the antique pieces it was time to get on a bus to leave for Taichung because there would be school Monday however it was still an exciting weekend!