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Sunday, May 13, 2018

Taiwan 8D7N Free & Easy Tour - Old Streets of Jiufen (九份老街)

Jiufen (九份) - a small town located in Northern Taiwan, a place where we always wanted to go since our first trip to Taiwan. Renowned for its food stalls along the narrow streets and the astounding views of the mountains and seas, Jiufen used to be a prosperous gold mining town in the 1950s. Many Studio Ghibli's fans also find the streets featured in the movie Spirited Away came from the inspiration of Jiufen.




There are many Chinese teahouses built by the side of the coastal hills where you can sip your tea, sample local delicacies and enjoy the spectacular view. 

To explore the old streets of Jiufen, we wriggle our way into the narrow streets and alleys, going up and down into the maze.


Love the quaint-looking streets and the unique architecture and surrounding just blend in perfectly. Every corner seems to have a little story to tell and a great spot for photo taking. Apart from food stalls and teahouses, there are also cafes, handicraft/souvenir shops and minsu (民宿).



Apart from photo-taking, we have been snacking as we strolled through the old street. Our first stop is trying out Grilled Jade Sea Snails (烤翡翠螺) which is pretty tasty and tangy.

Our girl's favourite is the grilled squid where we ordered another box after finishing the first. Unlike the other grilled squid stalls that we visited where the squid will be smothered with thick sauce/gravy, the grilled squid sold here is freshly grilled and sprinkle with some pepper and probably sesame and that's it! True taste of freshness from the seafood. :)


Just opposite is another stall selling grilled mushroom. The mushrooms here are huge and nicely grilled and coated with sweet sauce.


油蔥粿 - layered rice cake is another local delicacy in Taiwan. The making process is tedious which takes 4-5 hours of steaming the rice syrup and applying a layer of shallot oil and continue the process of steaming layer by layer.


Take a closer look of the rice cake and you can see the layers by the side.

This is a famous old shop selling 草仔棵 and into the 3rd generation. Business is very good and you can see the bee-line of people queuing to buy their assorted kueh - salty green bean, red bean, vegetable glutinous rice etc. Hmmm.. I could not recall the taste of this kueh already but I think it is worth a try if you are at Jiufen.

At Jiufen, you cannot leave without trying out the taro balls! 

More Century Eggs! As expected... we bought more back :)

An interesting Doremon bottle to slurp our drinks from. :)

The only souvenir/present that I bought for myself. Really love the music from the Ocarina (陶笛). Till now, I have not master how to play it yet but it is a nice instrument to own plus there are so many designs that you can choose from and all of them are uniquely different.

Happy faces as our tummies are fulled. 


The scenery at Jiufen is gorgeous. Would love to stay for a night if there is an opportunity. I can imagine how pretty the lights would be after sunset.  

Check out our Taiwan 8D7N itinerary.

Visited in Nov 2016

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