Jiufen

Jiufen used to flourish in its gold rush days, and revived itself with tourism, instead of becoming a ghost town. A famous Taiwanese movie, Feiqing Chengshi (A City of Sadness), was filmed here. The imaginary town in the Japanese movie, Spirited Away, was inspired by this town. These two films have helped the town attract Japanese tourists as well as domestic ones.
When we visited Jiufen, its streets were full of tourists. We increased the number by more than hundred. Japanese words other than our own reached our ears. It sounded like many Japanese tourists were there.
Jiufen's narrow, crooked and steep streets reminded me of the scenes when I visited antique posting stations and temple towns in Japan. The streets were sandwiched between souvenir shops, small eating houses, and some other mysterious storefronts. As we sauntered along the streets, various smells swirled around us; a sugary scent from the Chinese sweets shop, and the strong odor of stinky tofu among others.
The last street abruptly opened, and the lookout at the end commanded a bay and its port town, Jilong, far down the hills. The misty rain heightened a rather exotic mood.
Returning from the lookout gave our students shopping opportunities. Some raided a calligraphy shop to ask to draw their names and favorite phrases in snake-like letters. A couple of students looked for lucky-charm stones. Many others were having a look in various souvenir shops.
Jiufen was sufficiently an attraction.

In Japan, some mimic post-World-War-II Showa streets have been built to attract domestic Japanese tourism. They give baby boomers nostalgia.
There is a reason why Jiufen evokes nostalgia for some Japanese tourists.
The Meiji Restoration Government in Japan launched an expedition to Taiwan in April 1874. In May, the Qing Dynasty in China began to send in troops to the island. The government of Japan realized the Japanese Imperial Regime was still not ready to fight for a supremacy over the East Asia with the Qing Dynasty, and decided to withdraw its forces by the end of the year.
The First Sino-Japanese War broke out between the Qing Dynasty and the Meiji Loyalist Government in 1894, over control of Korea. Following its defeat, China ceded Taiwan to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed on April 17, 1895.
In 1893, gold had been discovered in the Jiufen area. The resulting gold rush made the town prosperous during the Japanese rule. Many present features of Jiufen reflect the era under Japanese colonization, with many Japanese inns surviving to this day.

Domestic Japanese tourists are also attracted to ethnic towns and restaurants in Japan. We have come to have a couple of mimic China towns both in Tokyo and Osaka, along with traditional genuine China towns in Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki. Both kinds of China towns attract tourists because of their exotic atmosphere.
Jiufen streets look exotic, authentically Chinese, to us. As the town is in Taiwan, it is not surprising that the town bears a Chinese ambiance, despite the controversy over whether the island is a part of the Republic of China, the People’s Republic of China, or an independent country. The controversy caused the 228 Incident, or also known as the 228 Massacre, on February 28, 1947. In 1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien's film touched on the incident, and became a big hit. Jiufen, where the film was set, revived thanks to the film's popularity. The nostalgic scenery of Jiufen charmed many Taiwanese people into visiting the town. The tourist boom even increased retro-Chinese style cafes, tea houses, and souvenir stores.

Jiufen gives us both exotic and retro feelings.

To Taiwan with Students

It does not always mean you have had a delayed flight when you are behind your schedule during your tour abroad. Our plain arrived at Taoyuan International Airport about a half hour earlier than its flight schedule. However, a bus had trouble, and that caused one class to leave the airport well behind the schedule.
Good luck and bad luck come in turn. The delay forced us to go to Zhongzheng Memorial at dusk. As we climbed the steps to the memorial hall, dusk fell, the buildings and monuments were lit up, and the park itself was surrounded with the lit skyscrapers. Breath-taking beauty spread around us. The lit gate at the other end of the park seemed to be open to a completely alien world.

Next morning, we were in a completely alien world. As we headed to Zhongshan Girls' High School in buses, motorbikes ran around like speeders in Star Wars, cars ran head-to-head as if to make defense against the bikes, and even a public-transportation bus cut in front of ours like a battleship. What a dazzlingly exciting world we were in!
In the high school, each of our students was introduced to their buddy. The Zhongshan buddies escorted our students to a hall where a welcome ceremony was held. Familiar lengthy speeches started. Students, both ours and theirs, familiarly started buzzing. It was, however, rather surprising that as many as 2 broadcasting companies came to take footage. One crew, to my real surprise, picked up two pairs of students and led them out of the hall to have an interview. As the ceremony went on, another crew naturally started interviewing another few pairs of students in the hall. A Japanese photographer who was accompanying our tour was taking pictures, in contrust, with reserve.

Jiufen used to flourish in its gold rush days, and revived itself with tourism, instead of becoming a ghost town. A famous Taiwanese movie, Feiqing Chengshi, was filmed here. The imaginary town in the Japanese movie, Spirited Away, was inspired by this town. These two films helped attract both domestic and Japanese tourists.
Its streets looked retrospective. I went into a public lavatory, which looked modern. However, it had, as expected, no toilet paper. It was a flush toilet, but it had a bin to put used paper in.

It is always fun and exciting to see how our students behave in a different culture. This time, I could even observe how Taiwanese students react to our students.
In Zhongshan Girls' High School, some of our boy students were very popular. I was wondering if they had been, or would be, so popular in Japan. So many girls, so many minds. Cultural differences seem to have even varied the minds.

Chinese cuisine is one of the three best food in the world, and is one of our choices when we dine out in Japan. Having Chinese food every day, however, is another thing, especially when the dishes are genuine and are not modified for Japanese tastes.
One girl student got sick in her stomach, and had to spend her afternoon with me at a cafe along Tanshui Beach. She had a cup of tea, and I had a cup of coffee, as we spent more than 2 hours on the deck of the shop. A middle-aged Chinese man was playing the ocarina as a kind of a street musician near the shop across the promenade. He seemed to have just 4 or 5 songs in his repertoire. As we heard him perform many cycles of his songs, sipping our cups, a marvelous purplish orange sky ceded itself to the dusk. Spotted lights romantically twinkled along the beach. Taiwanese couples started filling the beach, in stead of their predecessors, families and large groups of people. The girl was unluckily fated to be entertained with the middle-aged man's music together with another middle-aged man at her table.

Last-minute shopping is always busy and thrilling in the airport. It's a challenge to try to use up your last penny. After going through the embarkation procedure, some girls were busy purchasing further souvenirs including brand cosmetics, other girls were visiting fast food restaurants to use their last pennies, some boys had given up and were making a long line to exchange their Taiwanese currency, wasting their time and charge for remittance, or they might have been paying their charges to Taiwanese officials to show their gratitude for the friendliness of Taiwanese people.
The time had come for the students to come to the boarding gate. Three girl students were still missing. They must have been those who asked me the whereabouts of Starbucks in the airport. When I started worrying if I should go all over to the other end of the airport, I found three girls rushing toward us along the long corridor. There came the three girls, with their last memory in Taiwan clutched to their bosom, a Taipei Starbucks cup.