Jinguashi, Jiufen, Shefin and the Steps of Death

Wednesday was suppose to be a nice easy walk on a Food Tour in Taipei,  It was canceled and we innocently agreed to take the suggested day trip to the Gold mining area near Taipei.  Gold mining started around 1890 and lasted until the 1970's.  The peak of the gold mining was during the Japanese control of Taiwan.  The Japanese took control of one section of the area of the gold mining area and hired workers to search for the gold.  This area was known as Jingashi.  We took a tour into a sample tunnel and at the end they showed the Japanese guards searching a worker to be sure he wasn't steeling any gold!  The other side of the mountain was for the Taiwanese people - called Jiufen.  Most of it controlled by the Yen family who got very rich.  They rented out sections of the mountains to Taiwanese people.  They could do whatever they wanted in their section of land.  They built the tunnels and searched for their own gold.  They did have to give 40% to the Yen family and keep 60%.

Former office buildings for the Japanese Gold mining industry and the town below it.  Below is the "Golden Waterfall".  The color is caused by the heavy metals used in the processing of the gold.

There was a temple just across the way.  The Japanese destroyed most Taiwanese temples when they took control of Taiwan - they did keep this one as it honored Guan Gong - as they did.  They also kept temples that worshiped the god of the Land.  His statue is on the right.  This was very important during mining days as people went to pray that there land would produce much gold.

Michael showing off the tracks they used to get the carts of gold down from the mountain.  Doesn't he look like he is about to fly off the mountain!

Work rooms and tracks near Tunnel #5 - the only one open to tourists - entrance is below.  We went in they had a few dioramas to show you how it had been.

We stopped at a small temple that honored the land god.  Inside they had a turtle pool.  A lot of Asian cultures use turtles in their worship.  If you look closely you will see that there are two turtles on the lower left that are mimicking the statue.

At first glance these look like little houses.  They are graves.  Whole valleys are covered with these.

 

Wei, our guide was trying to safe my knees so he parked the car at the top and we walked down at least a billion steps before we got to the bottom and he picked us up with the car.  In the middle we went for lunch along Qitang Old Street.  These pictures do not do justice to the number of steps we climbed down.

Mike and our guide exchanging phone numbers.  Wei is going to walk all the way back up the steps to get the car and didn't want to leave us stranded.  Notice there are just a few more steps!

Next - on to the Shifen Waterfalls.  And more steps.  Lots of steps.  I was too busy swearing about all the steps to take any pictures of them.  There were a lot of people at the bottom.  Here is just a sample of the 50 pictures I took - I had to make the effort worth it.