The Teapot Mountain
The renowned U-2 expert Chris Pocock came to Taiwan (his fifth time) after Singapore Airshow 2008. We together made an excursion to Jinguashi (金瓜石) on Feb. 28th. Actually we had planned to take a train ride on the Pingsi (平溪) Branch Line, which was originally built for coal hauling. But when we got to Rueifang (瑞芳) to transfer on this public holiday, I was surprised that the small two-car diesel powered train had been jammed with people. So we decided to head for the Gold Ecological Park in Jinguashi first and hoped that the train to Pingsi would be less crowded in the afternoon.
The last time I came to Jinguashi was almost twenty years ago, shortly after the movie City of Sadness (悲情城市) had won the Golden Lion Award. Although part of the movie was filmed there, the once prosperous mining village had long faded before my visit. I remember I came on a weekend in autumn; there were very few people and the whole village was very quiet.
(That I came again to this movie site on Feb. 28 is purely coincidental. FYI: City of Sadness is the first Taiwanese movie that touches upon the Feb. 28 tragedy of 1947, in which thousands of people were massacred by the ruling Kuomintang [KMT] goverment.)
Now Jinguashi has become a tourist attraction. The Gold Ecological Park was opened in 2004, bringing life to this small village again. But unlike Jiufen (九份), where I also visited on the same trip twenty years ago and has become over commercialized nowadays, Jinguashi still retains its tranquility. In addition, Jiufen simply cannot match Jinguashi’s landscape.
A picture is worth a thousand words. You can see for yourself:
Ruins of the Gold Zen Temple
Note the aqueduct that runs parallel to the bridge
Yinyang Sea: Iron hydroxide flowing down the mountain makes the sea yellowish
Chris Pocock