Last weekend in Taiwan, so when a couple of colleagues invited me to go with their friends on a trip, I did not even think twice about it. We (Chialing, Chinghung, Xiaoyu and his girlfriend, Jiaho and I) are going to join Chialing's friend on this short trip. It is a old track call "Xiaochukeng" that joins a town, Hou Tong to another town, Jiou Fen. Along the track, there are supposed to be some old houses that were left behind.
The weather prior to the trip was not that great - it had been raining all week, and we were worried that the trip would get cancelled. Fortunately, when the day came, we had lady luck on our side..not only was there not a single drop of rainfall, but the sun was shining brighter and the day was warmer :)
We took the train (cost us NT40 each) to Hou Tong which was about an hour from Taipei city. The town was famous for its roaming cats. There were cats all around the train station, in the shops, along the roads etc. It may be hard to tell in the pictures because most of the cats were in the shops having their breakfast! The plan was to walk through the mountains from Hou Tong to Jiou Fen, which was just around 3km. So, it was going to be an easy, scenic walk.
Along the way, we passed by bridges, waterfalls, old houses, temples etc. There was even an old, abandoned high school. However, it was so broken down, and the only structure left was a wall and a couple of benches. You could just barely see that there was a flag post next to the wall. Over time, the flag post had given way to nature, and it had plants creeping all around it. We reached the top of the mountain in about 2hrs, and took the chance to take some great panoramic views of the town at the foot of the mountain.
After a couple of hours, we were near Jiou Fen. The cheery blossom trees along the track to Jiou Fen were blooming! Hannah and I had been to Jiou Fen. It was the inspiration for the anime "Spirited Away". We did not manage to visit the theatre the other time, but I was lucky this time! The theatre was opened - it was an old theatre where they used to feature films during days when the miners were here. After wandering about the old streets which Jiou Fen was famous for, we went for lunch and snack - of course, there was smelly tofu, and not forgetting fish balls and yam dessert. By the time we were ready to go back to Taipei, we were all full and happy. The train ride back to Taipei was uneventful as we slept all the way from Rui Fang train station to Taipei Nankang train station.
Oh yeah!... Not forgetting to thank Xiaoyu for bringing and displaying the wonders of using his newly bought selfie stick! :)
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