Small Town Travels-Ruifang
Michella Jade Weng, Presenter:
Hi, I��m Michella! This is my friend...
Michael
Turton, American Expat:
Michael! We��re here today in New Taipei City��s Ruifang.
one of the top ten small town destinations in Taiwan.
Historical
mining town Ruifang at one point practically poured
gold. It was Asia��s largest gold producer in the
1930��s. Although most of the gold, silver and copper
resources have been exhausted, still bits and pieces
of metals are brought up to the surface by groundwater.
Oxidation then creates beautiful, golden colored
waterfalls which pour into and paint the bay.
This
is the old copper processing facility, and copper
that came from here at one point was made into weapons
and coins. The three smokestacks that snake over
the mountains are said to be the longest in the
world, totaling almost 3km in length.
During
the gold rush, 80 thousand people came into this
town and Jiufen was one of the villages where they
went to eat, to buy necessities and to be entertained.
And this
is the center of street food in Ruifang. Because
not everyone could afford to buy fried chicken drumsticks
for their kids, local chefs made imitation drumsticks
out of fish paste, carrot, onion, cabbage and ground
meat wrapped in caul fat. Since Michael prefers
raw fish to offal, he went for sashimi.
Michael
Turton, American Expat:
Super fresh. Cut very evenly. Man, this is sashimi.
Is there any more space here. I want to move here!
Oh I��m
sure we can find a good real estate agent for Michael.
Now he just has to convince his wife.
Michael
Turton, American Expat:
The views, the great food, and the places here are
so relaxing, except for going up and down stairs.
It could be a little flatter. But no, seriously
it��s a wonderful place to come and spend the weekend,
sip tea and look out over the ocean.
