Taiwan travellogue, Day 2 Part 1 (Shifen)

Day Two of our holidays saw us joining a local tour to Shifen (十分) and Jiufen (九份). This was the only occasion that we joined a local tour because for the rest of our time in Taiwan, we were basically moving about on our own. The meeting point for the local tour was the Taipei Main Station, a very complicated transportation hub, very easy to lose one's way. We were very much aware of this and had taken the effort to locate the meeting point on the day before. 

However, we arrived early. To kill time while waiting for the tour guide to appear, we wandered into the central hall just as the clock struck the hour. But this wasn't a musical cuckoo clock in the traditional sense. Here, there was a set of gears that rotated and whirred while a toy train slowly made its journey across the display, accompanied by the playing of a traditional folk tune, Peh Pek Thong (丟丟銅). The Taiwanese call this their Choo Choo Click, which was installed in this station back in October 2016 at a tune of NT20 million (about RM2.6 million then). It was very funny, at least to me, to see people sitting on the floor of the central hall. At one time, this was banned by the station but after a while it was called off following public criticism. The whole floor itself is a huge checkerboard of black and white squares. What are missing are the human chess pieces to complete the picture! 😄

Shifen waterfall

The Shifen waterfall was our first destination, reached after slightly more than an hour in the tour bus. Our first touch with nature in Taiwan. As we took the short 15-minute walk, a train rumbled through on its tracks beside our path. We passed by stalls selling street food, well patronised, and we continued plodding on to the viewing deck. 

The tour guide said this Shifen waterfall was a mini-version of the Niagara Falls. Well, impressive as this waterfall was, I would say it was a micro-version, definitely not a mini-version of the Niagara. We continued with our walk and reached another viewing area where we could see the waterfall from afar and the river feeding it in the background.

Shifen Old Street

The guide told us that the Shifen Old Street was about a minute's drive from the waterfall, which was very true as hardly had we tried to warm the seats on the bus, it was already parked by the roadside. A short walk and there we were at the Old Street: two rows of shophouses lining a railway track. Clearly, this was a touristy area with people hogging the track to release their lanterns into the sky, buoyed by warm air from a burning candle.

But the Old Street wasn't meant to attract tourists in the past. Taiwanese people began moving here about a hundred years ago. Originally, there were roughly 10 families and when supplies arrived, they were divided into 10 portions for these families. Hence, the name sap-hoon (十分) became associated with this little outpost. Through time, it evolved into the more formal name of Shifen. When a railway line was constructed to connect the Pingxi and Ruifang districts, it passed through this little outpost and it was here, the Shifen railway station, that had become the centre of commerce and activity for the community today.

At 12.25pm, a train rumbled through the Old street. I was simply minding my own business as a tourist when I heard the hooting of a distant train. I looked left along the railway track where people were scattering and then right, and there was the train approaching slowly. It whizzed by very close to my nose and right after it passed, the tourists started clambering down onto the track again. Fascinating thought it was, this scene could not compare with what I saw in Maeklong outside Bangkok in Thailand.

To be continued....