Jinguashi and the Gold Museum

Jinguashi sits in the next valley from Jiufen and was the richer of the two, worked for gold and copper from the end of the nineteenth century until the mines closed in the 1980s. The site is now an open park of terraced streets, ore-processing ruins and preserved buildings, with a museum at its centre. You can walk a short distance into the Benshan Fifth Tunnel, which is cold, wet and low, and see the timbering and the cramped working faces. The museum holds an ingot of more than two hundred kilos in a case with a hole in it, so you can put a hand on the metal and discover that you cannot move it. Above the town stand the empty terraces of an abandoned shrine.

What you actually see

• Benshan Fifth Tunnel - a walkable section of the mine, damp and noticeably colder.
• The gold ingot - a bar of more than two hundred kilos you can touch but not lift.
• The Crown Prince Chalet - a 1922 wooden guest house, seen from the garden only.
• The shrine terraces - stone steps, gateposts and pillars on the slope above the town.

When to go

October to April is drier, although this corner of the coast is among the wettest places in Taiwan and rain is likely in any month. Come on a weekday if you can, because the buses that fill Jiufen fill this valley too. The museum has a regular closing day each month, so check before making the trip.

Honest expectations

The site is spread across a steep hillside and involves a great many steps in humid air. The mine tunnel is short and heavily interpreted rather than an adventure, and the queue for it can outlast the visit itself. Fog rolls in without warning and removes the sea view entirely. Most people arrive tired from Jiufen and give it an hour, which is not enough.

Nearby

Jiufen is ten minutes away, and the Golden Waterfall and the Yin-Yang Sea are on the road down to the coast.