Jiufen

• Today sunny 28°C
• Taipei

As a mountain city developed along with the gold rush, Jiufen retains details of miners' lives in the past. Wearing a helmet, you can walk into a mining tunnel, or explore the narrow, curving old street where vendors sell usual snacks. What you shall not miss are the tea houses and taro ball ice in the alleys. Walk along an old trail on the hill, you may explore an abandoned gold smelting factory and witness a town emptied after gold mines depleted. Standing on the top, you overlook lights turning on one after one in the once-prosperous city, a sense of melancholy arises naturally. Later, leave the city of sadness—a name of Jiufen derived from a same-titled movie—and take a train to Houtong, the so-called "cat village," and arrive at the spectacular Shifen Waterfall. Finally, end your trip at Pingxi, where you can release sky lanterns with your friends, hoping the calligraphy blessi...