ioufen's fortunes have risen and fallen with dizzying rapidity, reaching staggering heights as a gold-rush town at the turn of the previous century before falling on hard times when the mines ran dry, only to rise again in recent years as a mountain retreat for artists and, more recently, as one of northern Taiwan's premier tourist destinations.

The town of Jioufen (九份) is located in the mountains that rise up so steeply and spectacularly on Taiwan's northeastern coast. From the sea these mountains seem to form an impenetrable wall of dark green vegetation. Deep within, as the ancients were quick to discover, were hidden treasures of great value; by the 1890s, a precariously perched town had arisen to exploit the mineral resources of the area.

But gold rushes never last. Despite some desultory attempts to revive past mining prosperity, the town settled into a state of lethargy, ignored in Taiwan's flood of modernization. Over the last two decades, as people became, as they have all over the world, surfeited with the negative aspects of modern life, this little town suddenly became a mecca for those seeking to escape the madding crowd, and attracted artists who did much to preserve many of the old houses and give the town a distinctly bohemian character.

Mr. Kuo has seen many changes over the 10 years that he has had a studio in the town. When he arrived, it was virtually depopulated, with only the old and the children remaining. Now the place is crowded with commercial interests, with many of the newcomers caring little for preserving the original appearance of the town. As a tourist destination Jioufen's big break came after the release of Hou Hsiao-hsian's (侯孝賢) epic of Taiwanese history, "City of Sadness" (悲情城市), which was shot in Jioufen because it preserved so well the look of traditional Taiwan. The tall concrete houses, lines of small eateries, boutiques, and jam of cars give Jioufen an overcrowded feel on weekends, detracting somewhat from its frontier town appearance, at least at first sight. But there are plenty of little nooks and crannies that remain to be explored, which are as rich as ever in historical evocation.

To get a full view of Jioufen, both in terms of time and space, the Jiou Fen Art Gallery (九份藝術館) makes an excellent stop. The paintings of Mr. Kuo and other painters closely associated with Jioufen are on display here, providing an added dimension to one's perceptions of the town.

Jioufen is built on a steep slope, and one of its main traffic arteries is nothing less than a staircase of 362 steps苕uite a slog on a warm day. But there are plenty of stopovers on the way to the top. This is Shuchi Road (豎崎路), which runs through the very center of the town. A definite must-see along the way is the Shengping Theater (昇平戲院), now a tattered relic of the town's bygone days of prosperity. Little effort has been made to preserve it, but in the neo-baroque moldings that remain, it is not difficult to see that Jioufen was at one stage even richer than Taipei. "Take the best to Jioufen, and only the second best to Taipei", (上品送九份, 次品輸台北) runs an old saying from the town's glory days.

Right next door is the Little Shanghai Teahouse (小上海茶藝館), a teashop with warm lighting and dark wood, almost a recreation of Taiwan in the 1930s. Walking in, you are in fact walking into one of the film locations for "City of Sadness", which lends an added thrill for cinema aficionados. This is only one of the many excellent teahouses that provide a taste of what was the teahouse culture of the 1930s. No visit to Jioufen would be complete without stopping off at the Jiou Fen Mining Museum (九份金礦博物館) and the Jiou Fen Cultural Historical Workshop (九份文史工作室), which together provide you with about as much as you could possibly want to know about the town.

Like many of the teahouses and museums in Jioufen, the mining museum is a family-run affair opened by Mr. Tseng Shui-chi (曾水池), who has spent most of his life as a miner and set up the museum as a labor of love. If you don't want to make it out to the mineshafts yourself—and there are plenty of them in the hills around Jioufen—this is the place to see how the process of gold mining worked.

At the cultural and historical workshop, Mr. Luo Chi-kun (羅濟昆) has collected an extensive array of historical materials related to Jioufen, including many photographs. It is the many people like him and Mr. Kuo who, through their efforts at preserving this beautiful spot, have made it so popular. It is ironic that they established the foundation for the commercialization of the town, which although it has extracted an environmental cost, does mean that the pleasures of Jioufen are now available to the many rather than just a select few.

Transport Information

※Recommended stops

• Jiou Fen Art Gallery (九份藝術館)
  21, Shuchi Road (豎崎路21號)
  Hours: 11 a.m.~9 p.m
• Little Shanghai Teahouse (小上海茶藝館)
  35, Shuchi Road (豎崎路35號)
  
• Jiou Fen Mining Museum (九份金礦博物館)
  66, Shrbei Alley (石碑巷66號)
  
  Admission: NT$70
• Jiou Fen Cultural Historical Workshop (九份文史工作室)
  207, Jishan Road (基山路207號)
  
  guided tours and slide presentation.)