My brother had made clear he didn't want to do too much running around outside of Taipei. So with one Saturday to daytrip before he arrived, my parents and I headed out to Jinguashi.

Jinguashi is a former gold-mining town, now the site of the newly created Gold Ecological Park. Set in the lovely mountains outside Taipei, the park strives to present the area's history, culture, and unique mineral culture. Despite the increase in local tourism since its opening in 2004, the town still retains its mountain charm. It's a breath of fresh air for those who find Taipei to be too much of a concrete jungle (I am not one of those people).

The bus from Taipei takes less than an hour. We stopped by my parents' friend's house for...well, a mid-morning snack, as we'd already had breakfast at the hotel and certainly planned to have lunch. She was originally from Jinguashi, a minister whose father had been a gold miner. She'd prepared a local specialty, sweet red bean soup with chewy potato starch balls she'd bought in nearby Jiufen—similar to Japanese mochi.

The park itself was interesting. Our 100NT entry let us into the Museum of Gold (featuring the world's largest gold nugget), the Educational Center, and the Crown Prince Chalet, which was built by poor laborers for the visiting Japanese prince. Another 50NT gave us the opportunity to explore a former mine, which in Disney-fied fashion, had been equipped with models of miners hard at work or eating lunch, complete with hilarious voice tracks. We also saw haunting photos of Japanese mine inspections during the occupation. There's also a very simple POW memorial a short ways from the mines.

Of course the best part was lunch. The minister led us to an open-air restaurant on a hill, with a ramshackle wooden kitchen. The place seemed to be the most popular in town. The wiry, continuously-smoking chef hovered over the freezer case behind us and rattled off the available types of fish. We pulled our plastic lawn chairs up to the card tables to enjoy the feast of garlicky clams, fish soup, and decadent taro & shrimp rolls wrapped in fried tofu skins.

Hilltop wooden kitchen

One caveat: those needing to use the public restrooms in Jinguashi should be warned only squat toilets are available. These are not uncommon throughout Taiwan, but less common than in China or other Asian countries.

I really wanted to see Jiufen, another former gold-rush town known to be very picturesque; unfortunately it was a market day and looked far too busy/annoying from the bus. We continued on to Keelung instead.

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