We had an early breakfast today as it's going to be a busy day ahead. The dining room is just outside our room.
The breakfast was prepared by the owner of Long Men Ke Zhan. It's sweet potato porridge (地瓜粥), though simple but super tasty.
We had arranged for 潘先生 to pick us up at 9:30am today. Our first destination is the nearby Gold Museum (黄金博物馆), formerly known as Gold Ecological Park (黄金博物园区).
This is a museum of gold mining industry in New Taipei City (新北市), which includes a Gold Building, Benshan Fifth Tunnel, Crown Prince Chalet, Gold Refining Building and Japanese-Style Residences.
The exhibits around shows the various tools and equipment used for gold mining during the gold rush.
Across the museum, we could see houses built on the slope of a hill.
On the other side of the hill is a Chinese cemetery.
The following is the crown prince chalet built for the Japanese Crown Prince, Hirohito, during the Japanese Occupation. It was later used by Chiang Kai-shek as lodging in this area.
The below creatures are the legendary "Gold Carrying Beast" (运金兽). Legend says that not everyone can see them but if you do, try touching them gently and they may lead you to a fortune. So keep a lookout when you are there. :-)
Jerlene and Javier sitting in a gold mining cart.
There is a railway track that leads to the actual gold mining tunnel (本山五坑). The museum does organize tours to enter the tunnel but we did not join because we did not have enough time here.
Finally we were at the Gold Building and on the second floor, we got to touch the world record 220kg 999.9 pure gold brick. The price of this gold brick based on today's gold price was about TWD268 million. After touching the gold brick, hopefully we will "Huat" ah....... :-)
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