Day 7 - Last full day in Taipei

Today we ate breakfast at the hotel then we took a bus to Jinguashi.  A city outside of the city of Taipei in the mountains.  We were accompanied by a group of NTNU students the whole day.  They were fun to talk to.  Two of the students will actually being coming to study at UofM Flint next semester.  During our bus ride our tour guide explained the geography as we traveled over a few of the 250 mountains of Taiwan.  There were breathtaking views that would have been a lot better if it was not as cloudy.  We first toured the Gold Ecological Park where we saw the beautiful gardens of the Prince’s Chalet.  Next, we all were given hard hats and sent in to the mine where we saw how the gold was original mined.  The final stop in the Gold Ecological Park was the museum.  There was old mining equipment on display and more history to read about.  The highlight of the museum was being able to touch the 220 kg gold nugget.  I bought a shirt that says “Get Rich” in Chinese.

Following the gold park tour we took the bus to Jiufen Old Town, which was like the night market, but open all day.  The narrow passage ways were filled with people as we walked to the restaurant for lunch.  I was served chicken with oyster sauces.  All I ate was the rice because the chicken was basically chopped up with the bones still in it.  After lunch everyone was free to roam the town and shop for about an hour.  I bought a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone but didn’t find any good souvenirs.

From there we were back on the bus for a long ride to Shifen.  In Shifen everyone was able to create their own sky lantern by painting their wishes on all 4 sides.  I wrote my wishes in English then attempted to write them in Chinese.  Many of the locals said I did a really good job and gave me pointers on the order to paint the lines.  Where we let the lanterns go is actually on train tracks.  About every 20 minutes whistles would blow indicating that a train was coming and everyone would have to move to the side.  After lighting the lanterns we explored the small city then headed back to our hotel by bus. The sky lantern experience was an awesome experience and extremely fun.

After walking thought the night market one last night, three of us went with one of the NTNU students to the Hot Springs.  It was a little strange at first but extremely relaxing.  The place is a store front then a long hall full of small rooms with individual rooms and tubs.  You controlled the temperature of your bath with amount of hot springs and tap water you used.