Taiwan - Day 3 - Part 2

From Jiufen we took a bus to Jinguashi. It is also known as Kinkaseki in Japanese, is well known for for its historic gold and copper mines.

The town has evolved itself into a popular tourist spot. It also housed the Gold Ecological Park and in 2002, Jinguashi was named a potential World Heritage site. Here, visitors can touch a 220kg gold brick or try their hand at panning for gold.

The Crown Prince Chalet is the most representative example in Taiwan of a Japanese style villa. It was built to accomodate the Japanese crown prince when he visits. The landscaped gardens is open to public and once can peek inside the buildings from the gardens.

You will reach Gold Zen temple which is situated right above the Gold Ecological Park Museum. One will have climb a steep path before reaching the temple (good thing I have been going to Bukit Kiara right after work).

It's worth the climb as the view is great from there as well as a close look at its unique geology. You can get more information about the park by visiting Gold Ecological Park.

There are lot of other attractions here but we were not able to visit all of them. The rain was pouring quite heavy by 4:00pm (damn, no chance to touch the 220kg gold brick) and we decided to head back to Taipei. We took a direct bus back to Taipei, be sure to ask before boarding (the bus driver's can tend to be a bit cranky, bet it's the whole day driving thing).

It was raining all the way back to Taipei. Took the chance to get some shut eye. By the time I woke up, we were already back in Taiper. BS brought me to this pink color shop for deserts.

Here we are at "Hello Kitty". We had some light food here before heading out to another local night market near the Long Shan temple called the "Huasi Street Night Market". 

 As you can see, it's still raining but one good thing is about this night market is that, they have a covered roof. Again, I am surrounded with food but the attraction here is its SNAKE shops selling snake dishes and snake wine, which are said to have aphrodisiac properties.

Of course I didnt try any of the slithering dishes but I did try out the below (slurp slurp).

 

The fish soup is so clear and tasty, I bet there are no MSG added in. The fish is fresh that you can taste it with every bite on the flesh. Not forgettting the pork knuckle, I really do not know how to describe the taste. It just melt/dissolve in your mouth ~ Hey, M&M you have a competitor here.

We saw this funny way of promoting a candidate for their general election.

Yes, that's a real duck. The lady did a little victory dance after I took this picture. The rain hasn't stop and that little scene did cheer me up a bit.

That closes our 3rd day. Rainy or sunny the next day? Check it out here, Taiwan - Day 4.