Yehliu park

My friends and I went to the Yehliu park today to do some hiking and photo shooting. Well, we ended up doing some hiking, but spent up all of our daylight exploring the caves on the beach where the tourists don't dare to venture. Last time I was here, I remember just walking the beaten path and taking a picture next to "queen's head". But apparently there are alot more places to venture off the beaten path for some hiking and exploration and photography. Of course, not too dangerous, but definitly no crowds where we were. Our plan was to also visit Jioufen and Jinguashi, but there was no time left. We started the day way too late. So we ended up going to Maokou night market for some dinner. The Parkers definitly enjoyed that too. We're always up for some new food and exploration. Next time, i'll have to allow more time to explore Yehliu park and take more photos. So till next adventure!

Photo by Jeff Parker

Jinguashi's Gold Ecological Park and Jioufen (Old Street)

I headed to gold ecological park in Jinguashi today early in the morning. The park was a mix of old japanese imperial housing and the miners experience. They tought you how to pan for gold in the panning experience. In the Japanese prince's house, there is an old cement mini-golf course. I didn't know mini-golf existed so long ago. There was also a tour of the 5th mining tunnel (extra cost), but we skipped it. That leaves something for next time. The entire park is situated up in the mountains. There is a long path leading into the mountains which gives a great view of the park below and the seaside. On the way back down, we were tired so we stopped by a douhua (豆花) shop. It's a cold soup made with very soft tofu and clear sugar syrup. Refreshing!

Leaving the park on a bus back down the mountain, there is an old town called JiouFen. JiouFen has a series of old streets filled with food and souvenir shops. Being a mountainside town though, the streets are on a hill. It's like the san francisco streets of taiwan. On our walk up the street, we saw a street hawker selling grilled snail. I don't know what kind, but it was delicious. At the end of the day, we took a long break at a old tea house overlooking the seaside. A perfect place to sit down with some nice scenery and share several pots of tea and just talk and talk away.


You'd think that the day is over, but once we got back to Keelung, we visited the local Miaokou night market (廟口夜市) there. We had a taiwanese sandwich which was special to Keelung. Also some oyster omelette (蚵仔煎) and desert. We spent about an hour there, then jumped on a bus for a long trip back. It was a tiring and great day, so I slept on the bus all the way back to Taipei. Good night everyone! More photos here.