Precious Memories: Pingxi, Shifen, and Keelung Night Market

2019 Summer Trip to Asia

August 21, 2019 -- Taipei to Pingxi, Shifen, and Keelung

On this misty, cloudy day, our dear friend Lin will be taking us out for a day of outings to the old mining towns in the eastern New Taipei district. We have been to Shifen before but not Pingxi, so it would be interesting to find the differences between these two popular destinations. Our car drove through the hilly Wenshan District, Shenkeng District, and then Shiding District before arriving the little town of Pingxi.

Pingxi

We were able to find parking right next to the Pingxi Waterfall along the highway.

Next to the waterfall is the path that leads to the Xiaozishan Trail uphill which we did not take.

Small town of Pingxi from roadside.

Not that attractive.

Entering Pingxi Old Street. Not that many people there on a regular day.

We randomly chosen an eatery for a quick lunch.

A famous Taiwanese delicacy, Ba Wan (Meat Ball), glutinous rice paste with pork and other ingredients stuffed inside. They could be steamed or fried before serving.

Mi-Gao, steamed glutinous rice with meat, mushroom pieces and peanuts.

Mi-gao out of the original container.

Other side dishes including the stinky tofu.

I must say that this is not my kind of food.

Name of the eatery.

Old fashioned convenient store.

Love these man-holes everywhere. They even have their famous 'lanterns' on this one.

I suppose this store has some history behind this 'department store.'

Established in 1953.

Local train coming through town.

I believe they have the oldest mail box in town, but I did not get a photo of it. Only the painting on the wall. Apparently, it should be right here according to the sign.

Old friends.

Some tourists letting off their lanterns up to the sky. Supposedly the lanterns will carry their wishes up to the gods for them to come true.

The quiet Pingxi train station.

Time schedule for the local trains.

"Pingxi Train Station"

Shifen

Then we drove the short distance to another old mining town of Shifen, which is now a popular tourist destination. Most people come here to lit off their lanterns which is the main business in this small town.

It was kind of quiet on one of the side streets.

But when we got to the main part of town, we could see the crowds all gathered along the train tracks.

Everybody waiting for their turns to lit off the lanterns.

They would purchase the lantern from one of the stores, then write their wishes on the lantern. The workers of the store would help them take photos and then lit the lantern to fly up into the sky.

This Japanese family is ready to fly their lantern.

Uh oh, the train is coming!

Everybody moved away from the train tracks.

One of the store helpers.

Korean dreams will be going up.

Up, up and away!

The train is coming back!

Here we go again!

There's the Jingan Suspension Bridge across from the train station but there is really nothing on the other side. We thought it was fun just walking across this bridge.

It was pretty shaky as more people got on this bridge. I think there is a sign stating the number of people that should be on the bridge at one time but seemed like nobody cares.

Shifen Train Station

Keelung River under the bridge.

"Origins of the Shifen Sky Lanterns"

Keelung Night Market

On our way back to Taipei, we decided to stop at Keelung and visit the famous night market there. We were here in November when we made a cruise stop at Keelung port while on the Diamond Princess but MOR was not with me at that time. This will be his first time here.

It was not easy to find parking but we finally figured out that we could park at the mall nearby. Not for free but at least there was parking. It was just a short walk to the night market so all was well. Unfortunately we came on a day when they were having some kind of celebration within the night markets so many of the vendors were closed. We were told that this was a celebration that takes several days with vendors taking turns joining the nightly dinner at the temple.

The temple setting up for group dinner.

With the main part of the market closed for the occasion.

Only the side streets remain opened.

This has to be the best pepper meat pie there is.

We had to wait for the meat pies to come freshly out of the oven. They were super hot and delicious!

Fresh pepper meat pies.

We regretfully had a bowl of meat soup from this stall. Not that it was not good, but we discovered that they did not really do a good job washing the used soup bowls and utensils. They only dipped the dirty bowls in a bucket of water and that was it. Yikes!