Tours and the sky lanterns

The next day (day seven for those keeping track), was going to be a day full of tours. After breakfast we went outside our hotel and got on a charter bus with some students from NTNU. We also met our tour guide who was a very energetic girl named Jenny. Our first stop was the gold ecological park and museum. Besides the heat, this was actually a pretty cool stop. Part of the stop included an old Japanese house that was meant for a prince (this was back when Japan occupied Taiwan). For reasons unknown, the prince never made it to Taiwan though so the house was never used. Either way, the house was really nice to look at. This part of the tour also had us go through an old gold mining tunnel. The tunnel itself was quite cool and damp, thankfully we had the helmets that blocked most of the water and made accidently hitting the ceiling of the tunnel not quite so painful. Towards the end of the tour we got to see and feel big chunk of solid gold too. I think the only thing that would have made this more enjoyable is if the humidity was not as heavy as it was.

The prince's house from the back

At the gold ecological park

After the gold park, we headed to an old town named Jiufen. This was probably the most crowded place I've been to yet. A lot of the areas we walked through were very small alleyways. Combine that with a lot of people and people trying to drive their mopeds through the alley and there was barely any room to move. However, I could see why it was so busy. There were many small shops set up on both sides of the alley and a lot of them either had some interesting items or tasty looking food for sale. Once we got out of the alley, we found a nice restaurant for a group lunch. After lunch, we had about an hour or so of free time. Because of how crowded the alley was, a few of us decided to just sit in the restaurant, rest our feet, and just talk. Two girls from NTNU named Julie and June stayed with us. I really enjoyed learning about some of the different kinds of music, movies, and activities they like to do in Taiwan. Surprisingly, it seems like karaoke is the major thing a lot of the college kids like to do in Taiwan. Once our time was up, the entire group met up again, got on the charter bus, and headed to our last stop.

Sky Lanterns

Our final stop was the town of Shifen. Here, we would get to experience the sky lanterns. All of us were allowed to chose our own sky lantern and write whatever we wanted on them. There were many different colors to chose from and each color represented something different. I chose yellow which represents wealth. After painting on all four sides of the sky lantern and letting it dry, it was time to set it off. With the assistance of one of the workers there, we got the sky lantern lit and I released it into the sky. While it might be such a simple thing, actually holding it as it starts filling with hot air and then seeing how quickly it floats in the sky when you let it go made the entire experience really cool. The other interesting thing about Shifen is that it is one of the few towns left that actually has a train running through the center of the town. The only warning that the train is coming is the whistle from the train and the whistles from some of the workers to warn everyone of the approaching train. While it was fun to explore Shifen, the day itself had been a long one and I was okay with returning to the bus and returning home for the night. Especially since I knew that tomorrow would not only be the first full free day we would have, but it was also going to be the day I'd get to ride the high speed rail as well, which is something I had been looking forward to the entire trip! So, until then, it was nice to just take the rest of my night and just relax.