Tuesday 19, November 2024
What a hell of a ride/walk today was. We left Jiaoxi in the rain, at some stage during the day it stopped raining and then it started again and by the evening it was pouring down.
Today’s ride up the east coast was probably one of the worst days I have ever ridden while bike touring. We were on Highway 2 following the coast towards Keelung. The route was supposed to be really nice. However, we had trucks thundering by us every few minutes. The road was also probably the worst we have ridden on in Taiwan, sometimes there was no shoulder at all. Add to that the rain, the wind and the tunnels. Just an absolutely joyous ride (NOT).
We did manage to stop a few times to get photos of the amazing rock formations.
There was only one brief respite when the route took us through a bike tunnel. A 2 km long tunnel away from the noise and traffic. The Caoling Bike tunnel was originally part of a Japanese built railway, completed in 1924. In 1986 it was abandoned as it was too small to run train traffic through it. The tunnel was reopened in 2009 as a bikeway, with lights and music.
One of the places I did want to see on this trip was Jiufen Old Street. I knew it was up hill, but my god I didn’t think I would be pushing my bike uphill for 3.4 kms.
As we made the left turn to go up to Jiufen, we both noticed the old buildings. These were old gold processing plants. One of them is now a museum.
The waterfalls around this area are called golden waterfalls, due to the colour of the rocks, the water flows over.
Ralf took a photo of these musicians and then started to push his bike, he said no point killing ourselves, but I don’t think he realised we still had 3.4 kms to go.
Google maps ironically bought us through a cemetery and up and down stairs to our homestay, which had advertised that it was only 350 metres from Jiufen Old Street. Just before we got to the homestay, we had to unload our bikes to be able to get them up the last flight of steps. Jiufen Old Street was only 350 metres from the homestay but downhill and down stairs. I have no idea how we are going to get down from this mountain tomorrow.
View from the Homestay
We were so wet and cold, I couldn’t even be bothered to dry and clean the bikes. As far as I was concerned at that point, I would not have been sad if someone stole them.
Sometimes the homestays do not make it easy to check-in. Once you get to the homestay and sometimes before you arrive, the owners will send you a code. We searched everywhere for the key code panel, eventually one of the young cleaners showed us where it was and we were able to get into the room. We were settling into our room and heard people outside trying to get in. We let the family from Singapore into the building and then tried to help them find their room. There was only three other rooms available and their code didn’t work on any of them. Eventually the owners responded to their inquiries and they realized that they were booked into the building next door. Same name, same address, same front door code, just a different entrance door for the family room.
After we had showered and relaxed a little, we headed down to Jiufen Old Street. After the day we had I was hoping and praying that it was worth the effort of getting here. Fortunately it was definitely worth the visit. Although there are easier ways to get here. You can take the train to Riufen and get a taxi from there, you can also take a bus or a tour bus. We saw quite a few tour guides with their flags telling people about the stores and where to stop and buy gifts/souvenirs.
Jiufen Old Street is one of the oldest streets in Taiwan. The Village originally had nine families but expanded to a Town after gold was discovered in the hills around 1903. After the gold mine closed in 1971, the town quickly went into decline and was almost forgotten.
Jiufen Old Street is primarily four streets that are very narrow and each store is quite small. The largest store was the tea tasting house. It covered three floors and had great views of the valley (if you could see them through the rain and fog). I was looking at some of the high mountain oolong tea for sale ranging from 600 to 6000 TWD ($25.00 to $257 Cdn). It is definitely a tourist attraction and you could pay for a tea tasting that was quite expensive as well. We did watch a video on how to make oolong tea. Of course you have to heat the pot and the cups.
I was just enjoying the atmosphere of the old building. One of the assistants chatted to me he told me that the building was very old over 100 years old and it was previously owned by a gold merchant. His store was in the front of the building and the back of the building was his personal residence.
The rain really started to pour down about 7:30, there were streams of water running down the middle of the small streets and a few of the stores were closing. We had spotted a 7/11 and a Family Mart, we stopped in at the Family Mart and bought two rain ponchos which kept us dry for the walk up the stairs back to our room.
