{  Taiwan Diary: Jiufen  }

Taiwan Diary: Jiufen
Taiwan Diary: Jiufen
Taiwan Diary: Jiufen
Taiwan Diary: Jiufen
Taiwan Diary: Jiufen

Have you ever seen the movie “Spirited Away” by Hayao Miyazaki?

Jiufen (九份), a small little town in the Taipei country side (about an hour away from Taipei by car), is breathtaking and has an aura of serene beauty. Jiufen has a very calm and nostalgic feeling to it, it’s easy to spot bits and pieces of inspiration & resemblance from the movie.

As you might expect, it’s a very popular tourist destination (especially for Japanese tourists like myself :p) but since it rained in the AM and cleared up by the afternoon on the day we went, we got very lucky and were able to experience it with fewer crowds than usual. According to my friend, Jiufen is known to be the most beautiful right after the rain so it was definitely the perfect timing for us as it sure was beauuutiful. We actually purposefully visited towards the late afternoon so that we could experience both the daytime and the early evening to savor the two different atmospheres. When it started getting darker and all the red lanterns turned on, it created such a magical atmosphere and we were very glad we stayed for both times. I personally LOVED the evening atmosphere more.

We tea-ed at 阿妹茶酒館 aka Yubaaba’s Tea House (湯婆婆の屋敷) and since we had a party of 9, we were seated upstairs where they had the larger tables. Our friends ordered some traditional dishes that go well with tea and we enjoyed chilling here while looking out at the city landscape. Some people say this place is over-rated but this was one of my favorite places we visited during our trip :)

This concludes my “Taiwan Diary” posts. Hope you enjoyed seeing some photos from my trip!

01. Jiufen from the top
02. The inspiration for the tunnel scene that connects to the ‘other side’ in the movie of Spirited Away.
03. Tea time at 阿妹茶酒館 aka Yubaaba’s Tea House (湯婆婆の屋敷)
04. Look who we found! lol A fan dressed as ‘Kaonashi’. 「カオナシ」に遭遇(笑)

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Taiwan Diary: Taipei
Taiwan Diary: Night Markets
Taiwan Diary: Ice Monster
Taiwan Diary: Jiufen
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