The day began with a long bus ride over to Jiufen(九份, ju3fen4) Old Street. Jiufen was founded during the Qing Dynasty, and quickly developed in 1893 after the Japanese discovered gold. Many of the buildings remain unchanged, and so the influence Japan had is seen throughout. The majority of shops and stands are located along Shuqi (豎崎路, shu4qi2lu4), and the three roads that run perpendicular to it, Jishan St.(基山街,ji1shan1jie1), Qiche Rd.(汽車路,qi4che1lu4), and Qingbian Rd.(輕便路,).
On today’s trip here, we just walked around the old street, browsing shops and buying drinks/food. One of our main attractions was the street that inspired spirited away, the acclaimed Studio Ghibli animated film. However, we failed to find it this time around. I hope we can come back and look through other streets. I’ll let the vlog for today do the rest of the speaking.
Link to today’s vlog: