Jiufen’s lantern-lit stone lanes feel like a place where time paused when the gold ran out — which is more or less exactly what happened. This jiufen teahouse walking tour companion is paired with “Jiufen, TAIWAN – Jiufen Old Street, Fairytale-like Town in New Taipei City [Walking Tour]” — a focused walk through the gold rush town’s stepped alleys, Pacific Ocean viewpoints, and teahouse culture that have made Jiufen one of Taiwan’s most evocative destinations.
About This Walking Tour
This walking tour covers Jiufen’s distinctive hillside street system — the stepped lanes and narrow alleys that climb through the settlement from the road level to the highest teahouses with ocean views. Jiufen is built on a mountain slope above a Pacific bay, giving its streets a vertical character unlike any flat city: the main Shuqi Road climbs through a series of terraced buildings, each level looking out over the red-tiled roofs below and ultimately to the sea.
The video covers the A-Mei Tea House and the surrounding teahouse district — the concentration of traditional tea houses on Shuqi Road that has become internationally famous — the food vendor lanes of Jishan Street with their taro ball desserts and fish balls, and the Jiufen Xiahai City God Temple. The nearby Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park, a short distance away, extends the walk into the area’s gold mining history and WWII POW camp memorial.
The walk is relatively compact — Jiufen’s main area covers a few hundred metres — but the steep terrain makes it feel more substantial. The Yin Yang Sea viewpoint, where iron oxide from old mine workings colours part of the ocean, is one of Taiwan’s most striking natural phenomena.
Highlights of Jiufen
Shuqi Road’s teahouse district is the visual heart of Jiufen — the multi-level traditional buildings with red lanterns, carved wooden facades, and Pacific Ocean views that have made the town famous internationally. The teahouses serve oolong, High Mountain, and various Taiwanese tea varieties with traditional snacks; the experience of sitting in an upper-floor teahouse looking out over the bay is particularly sought after at dusk and in misty weather.
The Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park, 1.5 kilometres from central Jiufen, occupies the former gold mining complex that operated from 1895 to 1987. The park includes the Benshan Fifth Tunnel (a mine visitors can enter), the Crown Prince Villa (built for the Japanese Crown Prince’s planned visit in 1922), and the Gold Refinery ruins. The site was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp for Allied prisoners under Japanese occupation in World War II; a small memorial stands on the site.
The Yin Yang Sea visible from the coastal road below Jiufen shows a dramatic two-toned division: on one side, clear blue ocean; on the other, reddish-brown water coloured by iron pyrite leaching from the disused mine tunnels. The effect varies with weather and tides and has been the subject of ongoing environmental monitoring since mining ceased.
A Brief History of Jiufen
Gold was discovered near Jiufen in 1893 during the late Qing Dynasty and the town grew with extraordinary speed into one of Asia’s wealthiest communities in the early 20th century. Japanese colonial rule (1895–1945) systematised the mining with modern equipment and infrastructure; by the 1930s the Jinguashi-Jiufen area was producing significant quantities of both gold and copper. When gold production declined in the 1950s–1960s and the mines eventually closed in 1971, Jiufen’s population declined sharply, leaving the town’s traditional architecture largely intact.
The Taiwanese film A City of Sadness (directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989) used Jiufen as a principal setting and brought the town to national attention. International recognition followed when visual comparisons were drawn to Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) — a comparison Miyazaki has denied but which has proved commercially powerful, making Jiufen a pilgrimage destination for anime fans from across Asia.
Practical Tips
Bus 1062 from Taipei Main Station takes approximately 90 minutes to Jiufen; return buses run from the same stop. Limited parking makes the bus the practical choice at weekends. Taiwan uses the New Taiwan dollar. Teahouses typically charge a per-person minimum including tea (approximately NT$200–300). Jiufen is extremely crowded on Saturday afternoons and Sundays; weekday mornings offer a significantly different experience. Wear comfortable shoes as the stone steps can be slippery when wet.
Best Time to Visit
Jiufen is one of Taiwan’s rainiest locations due to its mountain position; the mist and rain create some of the most atmospheric photography conditions. Clear weather (October–December) gives the best mountain and ocean views. Late afternoon through evening, when the lanterns are lit, is the most iconic time to walk the main lane regardless of season.
Watch & Explore More
Watch the full Jiufen walking tour above. Browse more Taiwan content at the @walkingtoursvideoscom channel. Related posts: Taipei’s Jiufen and Elephant Mountain walk and Kyoto’s Arashiyama bamboo grove walk.