On our way to Shifen (十分), our friendly driver told us quite a bit about this town. The old name of Shifen is Shifenliao (十分寮). There are 3 things in Shifen that are plentiful. They are waterfall, suspension bridge and coal mine. In Chinese, people always say:"十分有三多，瀑布多，吊桥多，煤矿多". Shifen Waterfall has always been considered as a mini version of Niagara Fall. Unfortunately, it's currently under maintenance and we did not have to chance to see it. Well, we'll be back next time.
First, 潘先生 drove us to the tourist centre in Shifen. He really loves kids and always wanted to carry them.
There is a suspension bridge nearby known as 四广潭吊桥.
The bridge is built over Keelung River (基隆河). There are many fishes (Carp - 鲤鱼) in the shallow water below the bridge.
There is a boardwalk by the side of the river that leads to Shifen Waterfall. We will do the walk next time when the waterfall is reopen to public.
Here's a map of the surrounding.
Next, we moved on to Shifen Old Street (十分老街). If you expand the below photo, you will see many black spots in it. Don't worry, they are not bad pixel or dust on your screen. They are actually Sky Lanterns (天灯) rising to the sky,
Here's a closer look at those Sky Lanterns.
Most tourists come here to experience releasing of sky lantern. They will write their wishes on the sky lantern hoping that the "Great One" up there can receive them and grant them their wishes. We would also like to try as well but not here. 潘先生 suggested us to do it later at Pingxi (平溪) because it's too crowded and commercialized here.
Shifen also boasts the largest and the only double-platform railway station along Pingxi line. At intervals, the train will travel along the railway that are bordered by houses on both sides. Look how close it is from the houses to the railway track.
From the old street, we came to another suspension bridge called 静安吊桥, which is also built across Keelung River.
As we walked on the bridge, we saw many bamboo sticks in which people had written their wishes on and hung them on both sides of the bridge.
We crossed over to the other end of the bridge where 潘先生 will pick us up from there. Next we'll be going to Pingxi (平溪).
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