Before I got sick, Us (SVSU students) and my roommates went to Jiufen. It was a mining town until the 1950’s (Taiwan travel guide). We went to Gold Mountain first were there was a mining museum and also a Japanese style home. It was a summer home for Emperor Hirohito (super fascinating) and we climbed the stairs to the related Shinto shrine. Blake actually counted… almost 400 steps or something like that. At one point about halfway up we were seriously pointing fingers at “who’s idea it was” to climb up the mountain, but we did make it. And the view was worth it.
After going back down and having a sort of desert (the soup part was great because it was cold and sweet… the tofu-like stuff I didn’t like at all) and that’s when we did the museum. There were lots of little gold sculptures and jewelry and a diagram of the mine. There was even this big bar of gold that you could stick your hand in the container and touch (to what point, I’m not sure).
Then it was into Old Street. Lots of shops and lanterns and it was very crowded. The shops sold everything from children’s toys to traditional clothing. I managed to find unique little handmade Christmas gifts for my two littlest cousins. I got them Ocarinas, which are sort of like little flutes… they’re animal shaped (don’t tell them, Ari’s is a bright blue duck and Davis’ is a little turtle). The guy that made them could play “My heart will go on” from Titanic on a duck shaped one. Super impressive. The other thing I bought… I couldn’t help it. We were in a handmade puppet shop and the upper wall was lined with characters from Hsi Yu Chi (The Journey West) as well as a few Three Kingdoms (Guan Yu and Lu Bu were the two I recognized) and I found one. They had a really cute monkey king, so I asked the shop owner to get him down for me in Chinese using his Chinese name: Sun Wu Kong. She gave him to me for $40 off for knowing who he was.
I found out that seems to happen that way with me. Some of my friends have tried to bargain with some shop owners. Blake was successful with a small bracelet and unsuccessful with a Ocarina. Kaitlin was unsuccessful with a necklace (I could tell by the shop owner that that wasn’t going to work). I didn’t really try to bargain, if it was too expensive it was also likely to be a few shops down for cheaper anyway, but for using my Chinese to check prices and say the names of characters and things. Besides my Monkey King I also got money off the Ocarinas I bought. I paid him in exact bills I should not have received change but I did and quite a bit. I told him in Chinese but its says 100NT each and tried to give him the money. He told me in English that I was polite and cute so take the money and go *in a pat on the head sort of voice*. Often waiting my turn and asking in Chinese got me farther than bargaining.
The last place we wanted into was a small building full of handmade masks.
Apparently it was supposed to be like 30NT to get in, but the old guy let us wander
for free and take pictures (my roommate says she thought it was because we were
obvious foreigners and kids). They were all really interesting and a few
disturbing. I asked in English what they were for. The owner said he collected
them from an artist that could supposedly see spirits and most of the ones
inside were spirits he’d claimed to have seen. So as not to go mad, he made
them into masks. Again I was rewarded for my knowledge. I was caught by the
front (where they’re were masks of celebrities and even some US presidents)
taking a picture of the masks behind the door.
The owner wandered over to me, “do you know who they are?” I smiled and
replied, “sun Wu Kong, Hsuan Zang and the others from Journey West”. “Good Girl,” and he pulled the plaque with out
with them on it so I could get a better picture.
After that we were all so ready to go home. Exhausted and maybe a little dehydrated. It was all completely worth it. I can completely see why Hayao Miyazaki wanted to draw there. Why he wanted to capture some of Jiufen in animation. Its really a beautiful place and so different from Jingmei and the other places I’ve been.
