金瓜石 (part I)
As we were out late the night before, we woke up much later and had breakfast cum lunch at about 11am:
Haha.. No, no we didn't eat at this place la. Just happened to pass by, and my attention was caught by the giant crab on this building:
I dunno about you, but it doesn't look that appetising to me Haha it looks scary to me. Reminds me of Spiderman climbing on a building.
We ate at a small eatery that sells 菜饭。You can choose from a huge variety, just like in Singapore, and they also include soups like 酸辣汤。I had cabbage, mushroom with salted egg and 炒中卷。 I'm hopelessly in love with 中卷 (sotong) now, and can't resist ordering it whenever I have the chance.
After eating, we set off for the railway station to take a train to 瑞芳 station, before taking a bus from there to 金瓜石 and 九份. While waiting for the train:
HM and XY:
A lousy attempt at capturing the train coming in:
The trip lasted about 1 hr plus, and I was rather restless as I didn't feel like napping after a heavy meal. Some pictures that I took on the train:
Much of the scenery we see along the way is that of industrial areas and old buildings. Not much of a beautiful sight save for this scene:
A nice mountain backdrop. If only there were no industrial buildings.
We reached 瑞芳 station close to 2pm.
A rather cute and animated map of the area:
Some pictures of the area outside 瑞芳 station:
On the bus to 金瓜石 and 九份 (from left: WL, DC and XY):
The 黄金博物园区, or Gold Ecological Park (GEP), is located in 金瓜石, which is the mountain city of 瑞芳 town. Beautiful scenery awaits us on the bus trip up the mountains to 金瓜石 stop. Here's a brief history/introduction about the park: The Gold Ecological Park was actually built to preserve the area's beautiful natural scenery as well as re-creating the area's gold mining heritage and natural reserves. The whole area was pretty big, and consisted of various museums for tourists to visit for more information about the area as well as look at some of the historical artifacts and buildings reserved, and these include 环境馆，太子宾馆 and 黄金博物馆. I was quite excited about coming here as I love mountain scenery as well as historical stuff. The place did not disappoint.
A map of the area:
Part of the residential area found here:
One of the Japanese-style dormitories/chalets found in the older times:
You might probably be wondering at this point in time why such dormitories are found here, or why the place is kinda heavily Japanese-inspired, what with 太子宾馆 as one of the main attractions here as well. Actually, this area used to be the main gold mining area in Taiwan, and as we recall Taiwan's history, the Japanese took over territorial control over this area as well, and thus gold mining became one vital activity the Japanese had a commercial interest in, other than pure military interests.
As we were high in the mountain area and due to the slight rainy weather, the place was rather windy as well, tho not as windy as 渔人码头 the previous day hehe.
More pictures:
A rather nice police station there:
Pictures of the mountain terrain:
We bought tickets to enter three museums there, namely 环境馆，太子宾馆, 黄金博物馆 and 本山五坑坑道. An old gold-miner statue found at the entrance of the information/ticket office:
We first entered 环境馆, and as a result of banned photography inside the place, I can't provide any pictures here. The place, as suggested by its name, gives a brief (or rather detailed) description of the surroundings and how the terrain as we see it now was formed, as well as some of the minerals (particularly gold; ok, gold is not a mineral, so i should correct myself and say minerals AND metals, particularly gold) found there.This would probably interest geography freaks hehe. For me, I was a tag bored as my geography sucks, but luckily they have explanations in English as well, otherwise I would be totally lost lol.
The exit to 环境馆 directly leads us to 太子宾馆. Outside 太子宾馆:
Actually 太子宾馆 is a Japanese royalty housing-inspired place, and as you can see from the pictures below, the Japanese royalty housing is very basic yet has aesthetic beauty, and although it maybe a far cry from the actual ones we see in Japan, nonetheless the place inspires awe and I wouldn't mind staying here as well. They even have their own shooting range and mini golf course!
Some pictures:
P.S. Realize I took v long to complete this post due to time constraints, so I've decided to split this entry into at least two, so that i wont delay posting this entry till too late.
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