Sweet Potato Balls at Jiufen 九份
I managed to make it to the mountain village of Jiufen 九份. The names of these villages are quite confusing. The previous village was named Shifen 十分 while this one is Jiufen. Shifen could literally be interpreted as “Ten points” while Jiufen could be interpreted as Nine Portions. If you didn’t know what character was used in the names you could be forgiven if you thought they named the villages by number. Jiufen apparently is another one of these famous old villages. But once I arrived here, I can tell that this place was quite touristy. With all the shops around the area. One of the most important places here in Jiufen is the old street.
Jiufen Old Street 九份舊道
The Jiufen Old Street is basically a busy lane lined with numerous shops. I almost felt like a night market where there would shops one after the other. This being Taiwan, food shops were almost a requirement. The snack shops here in Jiufen are numerous and one would be spoilt for choice. This is not a Shilin Night Market though but you can see the similarity. I was busy dodging people and the rain as I navigate the old street. There were numerous tourists here from all over the place, funny since I never heard of Jiufen until now.
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