Jui Fen, A Quaint Village Beyond Taipeh

Jui Fen is a tourist “must see” village high up on a mountain slope with narrow shopping streets that sell local handicraft and food.

As we left the city what we saw from the bus was an eye opener. There were more open spaces and the buildings were old.

Big buses could not negotiate the bends that go up the mountain so everyone had to queue for the smaller buses that ply up and down, taking visitors to Jui Fen.

While queuing up, there were road side toilets where one could relieve oneself if necessity arose.

Passenger safety obviously was not paramount as our group of 18 were herded into a bus that was already full so we had to stand all the way for twenty minutes or more, swinging precariously as the bus rounded the bends going up the mountain. Quite unlike the smaller buses that took us up the mountain in Zhangjiajie in Mainland China.

Throngs of people were everywhere and our guide told us where to meet at a prefixed time. Then off we went to explore.

The little shops were full of surprises. The main language spoken was Mandarin although the local Hokkien was also widely used.

One interesting discovery was the ice cream placed on a base of fresh pounded peanuts wrapped in a round thin pastry skin.

Giant white bitter gourd was also on display and there were herbal drinks concocted from ginger, black sugar plus almond and longan.

Taiwanese snacks were ubiquitous and the fishball soup was recommended.

It was a very interesting visit and one couldn’t get lost as there is only one way in and one had to come out the same way, although there were short side streets leading to people’s homes.