Itinerary of the day: Yeliu, Jioufen and Shifen at the Pingxi Trail.

Started the day fresh and left the hostel by 9 am. We bought breakfast at a bakery nearby and coffee from Starbucks.

Our first destination was Yeliu. There are rock formations there including the famous Queen’s Head. We took the MRT to Zhongxiao Fuxing station and got out of Exit 2. Exit 2 leads to SOGO department store. Then, we took the bus no.1815 at 1020hrs and arrived at Yeliu at 1130hrs. Below is the sign at the street going toward Yeliu Geopark. It took us 10 minutes walk to get there. The bus fare was about NT90.

Yeliu was just amazing. Such natural rock formations took at least 10 million years to form. I really appreciate the wonders here. They were here before humans were. I like the fact that the tourism department in Taiwan really took the effort to preserve the nature’s beauty. The path towards the beach to get near the rocks and enjoy the big waves of the Pacific ocean is very safe. It wasn’t slippery even though it was rainy.

We had lunch at nearby seafood restaurant which have a very nice mixed seafood soup. It helped to warm up our body in the windy cold weather. It was 15 degree Celsius there. The weather was cold but the wind was another different story.

There was a taxi driver who offered us a ride to Jioufen for NT200 per person. It seemed like a good idea given the drizzly cold windy weather. Also we weren’t so sure how to get to Jioufen by bus. The taxi driver told us that the trip by public transport would take about 3 hours. So we accepted his offer and took about 1 hour drive to get from Yeliu to Jioufen.

Jioufen is known to have inspired the writer of the story Spirited Away. The atmosphere here really have that Japanese settings with the lanterns hanging in front of almost every shop. We chilled at a very cosy tea house by the edge of the mountain for an hour. The food at the shops was similar to those night markets we went to yesterday, but the weather was 13 degree Celsius and the view from the mountain towards the beach was breath taking even when it wasn’t that clear. We walked around till about 1700 hrs.

We got on the bus no.1062 at 1730hrs down the hill. The bus stop is right uphill after the 7/11. We reached Zhongxiao Fuxing station at 1900hrs. The bus fare was NT75.

There are many branded shops near Zhongxiao Fuxing station. We stopped by to look around. After getting dinner from Mcdonald’s (it tasted the same), we decided to head home.

Tomorrow’s itinerary is CKS Memorial, Presidential building, Bopiliao Old Street and Ximending. It will be all about the west of Taipei.