Taiwan Trip 2011 Day 3 Jiufen at Night

Taiwan Trip 2011 Day 3 Jiufen at Night

[ continued from Taiwan Trip 2011 Day 3 Shifen Sky Lanterns ]

Jiufen at Night 1

We arrived at Ruifang TS and took a bus back up to Jiufen. It was back to the minsu and a nice warm bath. But instead of going off to bed, at about 11pm plus, we decided to go out for a night walk to see if any of the streets had those cool red lanterns lighted and to see if there was any night life in Jiufen. It was a bit crazy but maybe the whole day of fun was making us a little high and not that sleepy.

These are some night shots I took of Jiufen town as wife and me were wandering around in the quiet of the night.

Jiufen at Night 2

Jiufen at Night 3

This hillside town is pretty crowded.


Jiufen Tea House - 芋仔暮薯茶坊

Jiufen Tea House

Our walking brought us to this tea shop/house called 芋仔暮薯茶坊 which translates to taro potato tea house. It seems that late at night the only places open are the tea houses. In Jiufen there are quite a few of these. These are sort of like cafes in the western world except Taiwanese prefer to drink tea instead of coffee. Well we decided to walk in and take a look and maybe a drink.


There is a second entrance way to this tea shop. I liked the fat buddha. The decorations are like from a chinese period drama set.

This tea shop had cupboards packed with heaps of buddhist and chinese curios.

Jiufen Tea House Menu

Haha we were a little shocked by the high prices in store. No wonder they accepted VISA. As per the menu for tea, NT400-1000 for a pot of tea! I could buy 10+ cups of bubble tea with that. Maybe it the 'themed' nature of this place. The decorations and the bamboo lined roof and balconies must have cost a lot.

We ended up drinking iced-lemon tea for NT80 each. Well at least they had multiple floors and you do get a nice night view from the top floor window.



Goddess of Mercy statue outside the tea shop in case you decide to go hunting for this tea shop.

Random cute little dog wandering around outside.




Just outside the tea house was a graffitti tunnel. This tunnel is quite near the main granite staircase at the Jiufen old street where the scene from Spirited away was based on. You will probably pass by if you are wandering around Jiufen Old Street.

Coming out of the tunnel you will see the Ah Mei Tea House which is another huge tea house. This one is very popuar with tourist and even serves alcohol I think. I thought the pretty red lanterns were quite cool.

It was past midnight that we decided to head back to sunnyroom minsu. It was quite cold and wife made a hot meal of herbal goji berry instant noodles to eat.

View from our minsu room. My first time here and wow I do agree Jiufen is quite a beautiful mountain town even at night. Goodnight everyone.

[Continue reading Taiwan Trip 2011 Day 4 SunRoom Minsu 陽光味宿 ]