19 Dec 2014 - Taiwan Trip Day 6: JiuFen Long Men Ke Zhan (九份龙门客栈民宿)

We reached Taipei at around 12:30pm.  Our friendly driver, 潘先生, was there to pick us up and he'll be sending us to Jiufen (九份) where we will be staying there for one night.  It's about an hour drive from Taipei and along the way, 潘先生 explained to us the history of Jiufen and how its name came about.

Basically, during the early years of Qing Dynasty, there were nine families housed in this mountain villager.  Every time when there were shipments arrived, the villagers would ask for nine portions, one for each family.  Later, Jiufen - 九份 (which means "nine portions" in Chinese), became the name of this village.  

Jiufen was originally an isolated village until gold was discovered in 1893.  This village quickly developed into a town during the gold rush and reached its peak when Japanese ruled Taiwan.  However it went into a decline after Japanese surrendered in World War II and for a while, the town was mostly forgotten.

Before going to Long Men Ke Zhan (龙门客栈) where we will be staying in Jiufen, 潘先生 brought us to a nearby temple, 九份福山宫.  This temple is very special because it has been "overlayed" four times.  It started as a very small temple (below) and over years, bigger temples were built over it.  As such, this temple is also known as "Temple in Temple in Temple" (廟中廟中廟).

After the short temple visit, we checked into our room in Long Men Ke Zhan Minsu (九份龙门客栈民宿).  The rooms feature classical Chinese interior with hardwood floors.

Below is the dining area where we will be having our breakfast tomorrow morning.

Looking out from the windows allow us to have a superb view of Jiufen town with sea and mountain in the background.

And this is the living room of the minsu.

Long Men Ke Zhan is situated at the top end of Jiufen Old Street.  It is one of the highest Minsu in the area and is only 2-3 minutes walk to the famous Jiufen Old Street.

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