Ninth stop: Xinbeitou Historic Station
Before we went to the last stop, Xiao Hei noted that there was a small field right outside the Hot Spring museum where we could admire the old-timey building better and get nice shots. So we did that, and he gladly became our photographer. Nice shots, especially with the sunny afternoon.
A short distance from the hot spring museum was where one of Beitou’s well-known buildings also resided – the Beitou branch of the Taipei Public Library, also colloquially known as Beitou Library. Wasn’t in the plans to go inside, so Xiao Hei allowed us to get our shots in plus teling us there was a vantage point atop a small structure where we could get better pics with. He did the proper tour thing of telling us what the building was and what it is important for, but I wasn’t really listening at that time. But apparently, it is Taiwan’s first “green library”.
After a few minutes, our tour guide Xiao Hei led us on a short walk across a park and a main road, and soon we saw the last tour stop for the day – the Xinbeitou Historic Station. It’s a nice quaint small building, basically an old preserved train station with a wood-frame structure. The roof also looked awesome. It looked immaculately like a preserved old house in the middle of these modern buildings and structures, like a haven of old times.
Xiao Hei then told us that this train station was made during the Japanese colonial period to help people come to Beitou and experience the hot springs, thus jumpstarting the Beitou hot spring tourism industry. But in the 80’s, the train station was disassembled and relocated somewhere else. In the late 90’s and early 00’s, the government and the local NGOs wanted the train station returned back to its original home as the country started to re-emphasize the significance of maintaining their cultural heritage. Eventually, things got rolling, and by 2017, the train station museum was completed and restored in Qixing Park, and finally opened to the public. That’s why the building kind of looked old-style but exterior was new-ish and fresh. And a couple of years later, another piece of history was returned to the place – a surviving train passenger car that once ferried passengers on the original line that the same station served, and restored to be an extension of the train station museum.
I made special effort to somewhat detail this place, because I kind of loved it a lot and I wanted other people to get the appeal of this special museum. For me, as a train enthusiast, I was in rapt awe of the place.
Once Xiao Hei did his tour spiel and everyone got the gist of the place, he offered his services again to have each of us get a body shot with the building in the background. We all took turns, and once we all got our fill, Xiao Hei allowed us free roam of the place, and said he will come back for us in maybe 30-40 minutes. Good enough time to roam the decently-sized museum plus the train car outside, so we did. I took a lot of shots, but I’d rather limit these a bit, I did go shot-happy at the place.
The museum had lots of old-timey stuff that was fascinating. Old record players, hot spring bathing accoutrements, restored old black-and-white pictures, old books, historic hotel amenities, surviving original wooden frames and windows, all of which were well-maintained and structured to pique maximum interest. I had a good time in the museum, going counter-clockwise from the main door, looking at the displayed items for a while. And then I went to the train car outside for more.
Apparently Xiao Hei was watching us while we went around the place, as he easily sensed when everyone had their go-around and were eager to complete the tour already. He then went around the museum, notifying everybody that we were to reassemble in five minutes. For me, I was chilling in one of the seats in the train car, admiring the place and just taking it all in.
All in all, I was satisfied with the tour. It was markedly different from the tour I had the day before. I kind of liked to think of them this way – the Yehliu-Shifen-Jiufen tour was for the eyes, the Beitou-Yangmingshan tour was for the soul.
Once we all got in and gathered as a group, Xiao Hei led us to a nearby underground carpark just north of the train station museum, where he parked the touring car earlier. He then congratulated us for completing the tour, and we all went in the car. Seemed everyone was a bit exhausted but still happy, including the silently bickering couple earlier. Maybe they made up in the museum? 🙂 Maybe just a small tantrum that was paved over by sweet talk.
We then headed back towards Taipei. Short distance away, as Beitou was (I reckon) less than 10 kilometers away from our pit stop.
Hmmm… I’d add it here, I daresay I liked the Beitou part of the trip more than the Yangmingshan parts. Largely because of the weather. Beitou’s was sunny and warm, Yangmingshan was a mishmash of rain and cold. But each of them held their own charms. I’d definitely look to revisit someday.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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