RTT Trip to Jiufen

After a week of non-stop rain, wind and generally miserable weather, I wasn’t expecting a great turn out for our day trip to Jiufen on Sunday. However, as you can see from the photos, I needn’t have worried. I had blue skies, glorious sunshine and plenty of great company!

Seventeen of us met in Taipei on Sunday afternoon to make the trip up to Jiufen for a day of exploring and sightseeing. First stop: the gold ecological mining town in Jinguashi, but not before a quick pit stop to fuel up with hot dogs and fried food at a vendor stall. Walking, munching and talking we wandered around the park and the Crown Prince Chalet, taking in all of the historical Japanese architecture and beautiful Japanese gardens. We particularly liked the ancient crazy golf course in the Prince’s back garden! Unfortunately it didn’t look like it was open for business so we left the crowds and tourists behind as we headed up into the mountains towards the Golden Shrine. 5000 steps later, (maybe a little exaggeration, but it surely felt like 5000!) we reached the top where we enjoyed the spectacular views of the ocean and surrounding mountains, as well as a well deserved sit down to rest our legs.

I pestered the group all day for photographs, with the plea “Oh please, for the blog!”  Thankfully with the beautiful scenery and amazing views I never had to ask twice as everyone was just as snap happy as I was.  I think we had a few budding photographers amongst us – so please feel free to upload your photos to our Reach to Teach Flickr account.

After making our way down the mountain, we walked across the valley over to see the big gold statue, also known as Guan Gong. We were lucky enough to catch some cherry blossom along the way. Cue “One for the blog!” By this point stomachs were rumbling and it was time to hit the Old Street down in Jiufen. We wandered through the streets grazing on the array of weird and wonderful delicacies, from squid balls to peanut brittle and ice cream. A trip to the Old Street isn’t complete without a visit to a traditional tea-house, so we treated ourselves to a pot or two of some kind of Oolong and honey tea, which was delicious. Our lovely waitress kindly treated us to a short lesson on the art of preparing and pouring the tea, very different to the usual tea bag in and out method that I’m used to! By this point the sun was setting and the afternoon was drawing to an end, so it was just time for “One more for the blog” before catching the bus back home.

Thanks to everyone for coming along, it was great to see so many new faces, hope to see you all again on a RTT event in the future!