The Bruner Family Journey: More From Taiwan: Keelung & The Northeast

At the Miaokou Night Market in Keelung

Keelung, Taiwan's second largest seaport, has a pretty harbor and a scenic hilltop park with a colorful playground and a 22-meter high statue of Guanyin, the Buddhist emanation of compassion and peace. But the real attraction is the Miaokou Night Market, which started when some food vendors set up shop in front of the Dianji Temple during the Japanese occupation. It is Taiwan's oldest night market and people come from all over the country just to eat here. The market has dozens of food vendors lined up neatly on both sides of the street (which is closed off to vehicular traffic), selling some of the best street food I've tasted anywhere. The Japanese influence is evident in the various sushi stalls at the market, but there are also plenty of Chinese standards like pan fried handmade noodles, big juicy pork buns, and fishball soup. Jeremy and I came here three times (each night we were in town) to feast on delicious seafood and fruit. The only disappointment was that Jeremy desperately wanted to win a prize playing one of the arcade games, but unlike in Taipei where he succeeded in winning a cool flashlight-pen, in Keelung his efforts led only to anguish. (I think the games were fixed so that no one could possibly win!)

Jeremy reads his kindle at a teahouse in Jiufen

The dramatic green landscape of the region surrounding Keelung is another reason to travel to northeastern Taiwan. Wedged in between the mountains and the sea, the quaint villages of Jiufen and Jinguashi were both centers of gold mining during the Japanese era. In the 1930s, Jiufen was so prosperous that it was known as "Little Shanghai." When the sources of gold dried up, the villages were for the most part abandoned - until they were revived as tourist attractions over the last couple of decades. With their wooden teahouses, traditional Japanese houses, narrow lanes, quirky shops, panoramic views, and splendid hiking opportunities, it's easy to fill an entire day in Jiufen and Jinguashi - before heading back to the Miaokou Night Market in Keelung for more sushi, noodles, and fresh passion fruit juice!

Shifen's main drag

You could easily fill yet another full day exploring the towns and waterfalls along the Pingxi branch rail line. A lovely hour-long hike from the tiny town of Sandiaoling takes you to three different waterfalls and the trail includes a couple of rope bridges and a ladder made of logs to ascend straight up a small cliff. You can also climb up on a narrow rock ledge behind one of the waterfalls. Jeremy said it was one of his favorite hikes "of all time!" Shifen is another small town, where the train passes picturesquely right through the middle of the town without a whole lot of space to spare. A short walk from the bustling little train station brings you to the Shifen Waterfall, which at 40 meters wide is Taiwan's broadest. There are a number of other little towns and sights of interest along the rail line, but we ran out of time - since we had to get back to the Keelung Night Market one last time before taking an evening train down Taiwan's east coast to the Taroko Gorge. See you there!