Monday, April 12, 2010

Jiufen - Nine Portions

   
Jiufen was a village up in the mountains near Taipei. It got its name (Nine Portions) from the nine families living there. Each time supplies from the town were needed, the order was always for nine portions, hence the name. Today I am sure there are more than 9 families judging by the flourishing tourist trade it does in the narrow streets winding amongst the old houses, some of them are much photographed by the tourists. I did not get to photograph any of the old buildings in Jiufen because the tour guide gave us only one and a half hours in this interesting place. We had to take lunch there, did some quick browsing and shopping for tid-bits before we were herded like sheep into the coach and taken to unnecessary shopping places by the guide. Still it was good to visit Jiufen again. I am glad that I spent a longer time there in my last trip to Taiwan.

1 comment:

alicesg said...

I will be heading there next month. We book our own SQ ticket(promotion ticket), book our own hotels in taipei and kaoshiung online. :) Take a train from Taipei to Jiufen and hopefully, have time to change train to shifen too. Just wish the weather will be fine. No typhoon or earthquake. This trip will be replacing my cancelled Japan trip.