Fifth part: Shifen Old Street
Our last destination on the tour – the old street of Shifen where a train line is – was just a brief 5-minute jaunt from the waterfall spot.
Once we got there, the bus driver dropped us on a roadside spot and we alighted there, I assumed there were no convenient beside-the-area parking lots. There were other buses parked, so likely there was also no good U-turn spot ahead. And this time, the afternoon sun finally showed up in a good way. It was sunny, and slightly breezy. Our tour guide Carol commented that we were “lucky” – as she said that in most of her tours, the sun was blazing hot by the time they depart from Yehliu to Juifen, and most of her tour people were already hot and tired by the time they get to Shifen. Not us, she said. Cloudy day might’ve not been conducive to our shots, but it definitely saved us from bad heat exhaustion. Well… couldn’t argue over that, methinks.
But looking at where we were dropped… my first thought was, “is this a tourist place?” as it looked way too average. Our tour guide Carol asked us to follow her, as she said, the main tourist area here is a bit of a walk more to the north.
I can imagine that the route we went to must be great at nighttime (maybe also on weekends) as there were multiple independent stalls selling grilled stuff, drinks, roasted chestnuts, and definitely some stinky tofu. But since it’s the afternoon, they’re just mostly chilling. Some did open very early just to get some of the pre-evening crowd market. Well, it worked. I saw some kids munching on sausage sticks.
And at the end of the route, there was railway tracks… and a bustling tourist area on both sides of the rails.
And from what I saw right away, the MAIN attraction here was sky lanterns. Multiple stalls and businesses with the same fly-a-lantern service. Our tour guide Carol then gathered our group near the tracks, and divided the group. For those who signed up and paid for the sky lantern, she led them first to a store that maybe the tour company is affiliated with, and handed them over to the store employees that spoke decent English, and arranged for what lanterns they want. Colors, and stuff. And as there was only two of us in the group that declined the sky lantern – me, and one 30’s-ish lady from ol’ England – Carol then led us to a good stall that sold peanut ice cream rolls. Apparently the lady asked Carol of it as well in Jiufen, and this time Carol said there were several in Shifen. She was right – on the right side of the tracks nearer to the train station, there were about five stalls of that treat within 4 blocks of proximity to each other. She immediately bought one. Of course I bought one too. But the one Carol recommended was WAY better than the one I found in Jiufen. The caramel peanut candy shavings were way less chunkier but more concentrated in peanut flavor. You could taste that the peanuts used were toasted first (the Jiufen one notably was just plain peanuts). The ice cream was way thicker, closer to a gelato or homemade. The wrap was also slightly thicker.
Then our tour guide told us to enjoy the place at our own leisurely pace, meet up again at the FamilyMart later at 5pm, and left to attend back to the rest of the group she dropped off earlier at a store for the sky lanterns. So, that’s what we did. The lady started window shopping on the left side, while I continued going north towards the direction of the train station.
I noticed that a train actively comes through, it wasn’t abandoned railways. So if I remember correctly, the sky lantern businesses have spotters that tell the various lantern makers when to set up shop at the rails, and when to pack up quickly. So I saw that their wares on the rails were all lightweight. Nothing bolted down, nothing heavy, nothing cumbersome. Just the manpower and necessities enough to advertise, decorate and fly the sky lanterns. When a train was about to come by, they all quickly packed all their equipment. Clearly not their first rodeo, as every piece of equipment they had on the rail tracks to facilitate flying the sky lanterns are all 1) lightweight, easier for them to put in or out, and 2) disposable and/or cheap, no specialized equipment as far as I saw, all the things they had there were cheap.
From what I saw, the stores are all where the transactions happen, and they go to the rail tracks to fly that lantern when everything’s good.
For me, I just did mostly walking around. There were food stalls and souvenir stalls, more than enough to keep me occupied for the hour. I only went for the peanut ice cream roll earlier, and I held back on having any more food, as I’ll elaborate later. After finishing my dessert, I hopped from one souvenir shop to another. So what I bought in Shifen were:
- Two fridge magnets, both Shifen-themed
- Two cheap magnets, one of a typical Shifen sky lantern made to about the size of my thumb, and one of a boba milk tea, of which I plan to put on the picture of my niece on the fridge just as a dig at the chubby boy
- One desk figure of a Siamese cat
- Two keychains, one is Shifen-themed, the other is a jangly lantern-like thing that had small bells that caught my fancy
- One pen
Shifen did had quite a number of souvenir stalls, but not as many as those in Jiufen, and clearly the main business in this part of town was the sky lanterns.
After having my fill of souvenir stores and watching other people fly lanterns after some artistically-questionable penmanship was done to its sides, I started to walk back to the FamilyMart where our guide instructed us to go back to. I already walked the entire length back and forth from their train station anyway.
Walking back, the roads started to look a bit more busier as more and more stalls have reopened and doing prep work for tonight. Seems nighttime is where the real monies are made here. I don’t doubt it, the lanterns I saw in the internet while researching this area looked nice at night. There’s one stall selling big meat sticks that fanned some of the smoke back to the street, and it was definitely mouthwatering. Although a few blocks down, one stinky tofu stall started frying stuff, and a whiff is sure to make a few noses squirm.
I reached the FamilyMart without fuss, as the foot traffic out of the sky lantern business part of town all led to that path. I saw a couple of my tourmates on the shed beside it. I did look at the FamilyMart if I could come in to buy tea, but it was PACKED. People hanging out inside. People pretending to shop slowly so they can stay in longer. People in line to pay for stuff, likely locals mixed with tourists. So… no. I just hanged out outside, looking around until Carol the tour guide came with the lantern-flying group, and soon, time to go.
We walked past this nice roundabout and… back to the exact spot where our bus driver dropped us off. We boarded quickly, and after that, we all sighed, exhausted, that finally, we are headed back to Taipei. Tour day’s done and dusted.
Bye, Shifen. Out of the three major places we visited, it’ll be likely the one I have zero plans to re-visit. Once was good enough for me. At least for Yehliu, I can visit later and still see new stuff. Jiufen was too large just for one hour. Shifen for me was just the waterfall and the sky lantern tourist district. Just my opinion. The other places were simply more to my tastes and accessibility as a visual tourist.
Some other shots:
I looked back from my seat to see the rest of the tour people just content. We’re on the way back. Probably all of them will just go back to their hotels. Not me. I still have legs for one more nighttime jaunt.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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