Taipei 2013 Trip Posts

All the posts of our Taipei 2013 trip have been posted and with all the photos uploaded too. To make it easier for those of you who wants to look at the places we visited/ went to, below are the links for each day. 

Day 1 in Taipei 2013 Yangmingshan 
Day 2 in Taipei 2013 Tamshui
Day 3 in Taipei 2013 Ximending
Day 4 in Taipei 2013 Ximending
Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (I) Overview
Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (II) Shifen
Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (III) Jingtong
Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (IV) Houtong
Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (V) Shuinadong
Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (VI) Jinguashi
Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (VII) Jiufen
Day 6 in Taipei 2013 Jiufen
Day 7 in Taipei 2013
Day 8 in Taipei 2013 Ximending
Day 9 in Taipei 2013 Home

Thank you very much for your patience. Hope you will enjoy reading my posts on our Taipei trip.

Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (I) - Overview

Today is a really packed schedule. We went to several places. Thank goodness, we decided to hire a taxi for the day and the weather was also really nice, cool and cloudy. Otherwise, we won't be able to hit as many places as we planned to visit. Our taxi driver, Mr Cai came to pick us up at 8am. We went to Shifen (十分), Jingtong (菁桐), Houtong (㺅硐), Shuinadong (水湳洞), Jinguashi (金瓜石) and finally, we ended at Jiufen (九份) where we stayed at a Home Stay or Minsu, as they call it in Taiwan.
As there are many photos for Day 5, I would be posting each place we visited as a separate post. :) The next post is on Shifen (十分).  

Day 5 in Taipei 2013 (V) - Shuinadong (水湳洞)

After departing Houtong (㺅硐), we headed straight for Shuinadong (水湳洞). While driving on the North Coastal Highway (北部濱海公路) before turning into Jinshui Highway (金水公路), we saw the Yinyan Sea (陰陽海). But we didn't stop to take photos as there was plenty of traffic. Yinyan Sea gets its name due to the intense contrast between the yellowish-brown water in the bay and the azure blue water toward the open sea.

We saw the Shuinandong Smelter or also known as the Thirteen-tiered Relics (水湳洞十三層選煉場) on the way to the Golden Waterfall. Shuinandong Smelter was built during Japanese Colonial Era and was also called Mine Selection Plant which was a place for mine selection. Due to its construction appearance, people mostly call it “Remains of the thirteen levels” (十三層遺址). The smelter has been abandoned, but it was once used for all kinds of stages in the process of gold extraction.

Shuinandong Smelter - since I was young, it somehow reminds me of a Mayan pyramid

The rocks and stream bed are stained to a golden-yellow colour by the iron in the water

After the smelter, just a little distance up the road is the Golden Waterfall (黃金瀑布). Golden Waterfall, appears a golden-yellow in color due to the large quantities of iron in the stream water.

After Shuinadong, we drove on to Jinguashi (金瓜石) which will be detailed in the next post.