20 Aug
Taiwan Best Trip: Riding the PingXi Branch Rail Line
For our full trip itinerary, please click here.
The first day of our Taiwan Best Trip is actually similar to Day 4 of our Taiwan Trip last month. Hence, this will be a combined post completed with transportation information and maps.
Meet Tammy and Senna, our photographer and videographer from 中華電視公司. They were assigned to capture the memories of our lil adventure in Taiwan. We really enjoyed the time we got to spend together and I started to miss them now 
To create a travel experience that is authentically unique, our theme of the day is “Small Town Story” and we will explore that historic and nostalgic treasures of beautiful small towns. On the first day of our trip, we rode on the PingXi branch rail line, one of the three historic small branch lines (other than Neiwan and Jiji) that have remained open for tourism. These historic branch lines are playing a small role in revitalizing the local tourist industry.
There are three main towns along the PingXi line – Jingtong, PingXi, Shifen. To get here, you can board a train to Rueifang station (40 min frm Taipei Station), and then transferred to PingXi line. Travelers can savor the beautiful scenery as the train winds through rivers, wooded gorges and streams along the way. Remember to get the one day pass ticket for unlimited ride along PingXi line (NT54). Or you can take Taipei Bus from Muzha MRT station to PingXi at 07:15 08:20 09:45 11:00 12:20 and coming back at 17:50 18:30 20:00 21:10 daily (NT 45).
Travel Information:
PingXi Line Time Table (very important because the train frequency is very low) – pingxi-line
Maps (click to enlarge)
PingXi
JingTong
ShiFen
Our first stop was Jingtong town. Jingtong was once the center of coal mining in Taiwan in the early 20th century. The town then went into a rapid decline where most of the population have moved away and many of the buildings were abandoned until recently when the government revived the tourism activities.
Places of interest around JingTong:
1. JingTong Train Station. Built in 1931, it is a wooden train station and a third class historic site. There are still relics of railroad equipment and other objects remained in the train station
2. JingTong Train Story Museum A great place to shop for souvenirs and to replay the old life from yesterday.
3. JingTong Old Street. Most shops along the street have a distinctly Japanese feel. We tried the famous ‘mian cha’ (flour tea) and Yang’s chicken roll to experience what the poor villagers eat in hard time. Mian Cha is made by mixing (hot/cold) water with flour made from husk or wheat. We were also told that the chicken rolls were made with leftover meats and veges to resemble the taste and texture of chicken. We also wrote our wishes on a bamboo roll and hang it at the wishing tent.
4. JingTong Pit Museum. The museum is the reconstruction of a deserted dormitory of the railroad bureau. It exhibits information on the ecological environment and history of the towns along the PingXi line. One can get an insight of the working places of the pit labor back then too.
5. Taiyang Employees Club. Built in 1922, it serves as a training centre and accommodation for VIPs during the olden days. Four Japanese masters, together with 102 workers were employed to construct the building. Major parts of the structure were made with cypress wood from Alishan. If you wish to visit the Taiyang Employees Club, pre-bookings are recommended as it is a private entity.
JingTong Wooden Built Train Station
Mian Cha/Flour Tea is actually wheat or ground corn mixed with ground sesame seeds, brown sugar and water to form a thick concoction that resembles porridge. For those who cannot afford three simple meals a day back then, a small bowl of these mian cha could actually combat hunger.
1. Coal Miners’ Canteen 2. Mian Cha in its original state 3. Hot Mian Cha, NT50 4. Cold Mian Cha, NT50
1. KampungBoy trying his hands in making the famous Yang’s Chicken Roll 2. It wrote “Corn Starch Soup without Corn Starch, Chicken Roll without Chicken 3. In fact, the chicken rolls were made using leftover vegetables wrapped in beancurd skins. Luxury item like chicken meat is almost non existence 4. JingTong town is a great place for bridal photography too
We wrote our wishes on to bamboo roll and hang it under the hut.
From JingTong, we boarded the train to the next station PingXi – the homeland of sky-lantern. In Pingxi, every year during the Lantern Festival, people have their wishes written on sky lanterns, and release them to the skies.
Places of interest around PingXi:
1. Fang Kong Dong. During the Japanese Occupation era, the villagers would seek refuge here if there is any bombing.
Saw my postcard? 
2. Antique Mailbox. The mailbox has been here since the Japanese Occupation era, and it is continuing to serve the PingXi community until now.
Our last stop was Shifen, a small village where the rail track cut through it.
Places of interest around Shifen:
1. Shifen old street – Once can see a unique scene of trains passing through the resident area, right in front of their doors here.
2. Shifen recreational area – The power of the rushing water has modified layers of rock formations in the area, creating beautiful “kettle holes” along the stream.
ShiFen
ShiFen Old Street
“ShiFen Xing Fu”
Taiwan Coal Mine Museum
“Kettle Holes” – a shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters.
ShiFen Scenic Area
The Spectacle Waterfall
One of the highlight of our itinerary is the release of sky lantern into the sky. Sky lantern is an airborne lantern made with rice paper on a bamboo frame. People in PingXi believes that by writing your wishes on the lantern and release it to the sky, all your wishes will come true. After arriving at ShiFen, we met up with lantern-master Chang SiFu and he agreed to show us the quite simple process of assembling a lantern.
Each colour in the sky lantern carries a different meaning and different element.
wish wish wish
We were touched the moment our lantern drift over and become smaller in the sky. We had so much fun and we will come back the next year just to fly the lanterns again!
Posted by Christine on August 20, 2009 at 5:07 pm
PingXi sounded very interesting! Chris and I would love to fly the giant lantern here!
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Posted by Simon Seow on August 21, 2009 at 12:18 am
Wow, I also read about this program in the Sun. 超級星光大道, 我猜我猜我猜猜猜 and 康熙來了’s TV station. 3 of my favourite Taiwanese shows.
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Posted by Jason on August 24, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Lucky nyerrr… Why didn’t they ask me one?! So sad.
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Posted by Traveller on August 25, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Thank you! Very useful information for us. You often write very interesting articles. Keep it up.
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Posted by Taiwan Day 4: JingTong - PingXi - ShiFen - Jiufen | KAMPUNGBOYCITYGAL on September 6, 2009 at 5:33 pm
[...] Read about our post on JingTong, PingXi & ShiFen here [...]
Posted by Executive Summary:6D6N @ Taipei & Yilan, Taiwan | KAMPUNGBOYCITYGAL on November 24, 2009 at 8:04 pm
[...] Jiufen, +Dong Bei Jiao, +Jinguashi, +Keelung: JingTong 菁桐 – PingShi 平溪 – ShiFen 十分 – Jiufen 九份 – Windsor B&B 溫莎堡景觀民宿 – Seafood Dinner near KeeLung 基隆 (+Dong [...]
Posted by Andrew on November 8, 2010 at 3:32 pm
How long you take to go from Ruefang – jintong – ping xi – shifen – rueifang again?
It seems like 1 whole day.
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
November 8th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
hi andrew, yeah its one whole day
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Posted by Pua on December 27, 2010 at 12:54 am
hi there! for the PingXi line timetable, i dont really understand about it. U said the train frequency is vry low, but then from the timetable, it looks like almost every hour there will a train from 瑞芳－菁桐 and vice-versa. And what does it mean by those highlighted in yellow color.
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hi Pua, i meant the train frecuency between pingxi-jingtong-shifen, etc. bcoz if u missed the train, u’ll have to wait for another hour. n theres ntg much to do in those small town
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Posted by Pua on December 27, 2010 at 10:31 pm
icic…thx for the info. =)
i plan to follow most of ur itinerary, jz on the 5th day, after the Jinguashi, i plan to go 野柳, then follow by 东区商圈 and 忠孝东路。Will it be too rush if i go 野柳 after Jinguashi? or Do u have any suggestion where i cn go on 5th day after Jinguashi?
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
December 28th, 2010 at 10:08 am
hi np, u can depart earlier. do yeliu + jinguashi, c which one open earlier. by the time u reach taipei shud be 8pm and beyond. can still shop for a while i guess?
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Posted by Aileen on January 8, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Hi !
I’m doing my Taiwan trip planning now and would like to find out from you, to tour ard Jingtong – PingXi – Shifen, how many hrs is needed.
Pls. advise me.
Thanks.
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Posted by Sean on January 18, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Hi, would like to ask…. did you do your lantern thing in pingxi or shifen?
Seems like its available at both place. If so, any diff between the 2?
Also, it seems from your shots the lantern happens at before dusk. About 4-5pm?
Just wanna confirm that to plan the return trip time.
Thanks!
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Hi sean, yeah you can do it at both places. its the same. Its better to decide when ur there, depending on your train time table, and where do u have more time to spent
u can release the lantern anytime, of course its the best to be done when the sky is dark, but we gota rush back, so we did it around 6pm.
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Posted by Sheraine on March 11, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Hello! I chanced upon your blog while researching for my upcoming trip and really love how informative your entries are! However, I am also slightly confused about the long intervals between the train timings, do you mean that these long intervals are only if i am planning to go to all of Jingtong,PingXi and Shifen? If I just head from Jiu fen to Pingxi (and not shifen/jingtong), and back to the Keelung MiaoKou Night Market, would I be able to avoid this problem of the long waiting time?
Thanks in advance!
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
March 14th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Hi Sheraine, thanks dear! Hi the long interval is referring to the pingshi line only, because its separated frm the intercity line. From jiufen to pingxi, you need to get to rueifang train station, and transfer to pingxi line (pingxi station). SO you need to study the time table of rueifang pingxi as well. Hope it helps
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Posted by jane on May 9, 2011 at 12:30 am
Hi,
For releasing of sky lanterns, are they available only at shifen and not ping xi?
Is there any particular shop to go to for making of the sky lanterns? and how much does it cost?
Hope you could assist with those questions.
Really interested with sky lanterns!
Cheers,
Jane
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
May 13th, 2011 at 10:48 am
Hi dear,sky lantern is available at both shifen n ping xi. there is a shop owned by a lantern-master Chang SiFu in pingxi, you can ask d local n they will lead u there. It cost about RM 20
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
May 13th, 2011 at 10:48 am
sorry he’s in shifen
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Posted by ms on May 23, 2011 at 8:08 pm
hi there!i m planning to go shi fen to light lantern as well!
but i am quite confused on how to get to shifen.
from what i know, one can take a bus (ping xi line) from ruifang to shifen.
but i do see railway tracks at shifen as well. so we can take train to shifen from ruifang?
and if we take bus, is the frequency so low as well?
thanks!
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
May 25th, 2011 at 10:40 am
hi ms. yeah there r buses to pingxi but from what i know, the time table is worst! so its better to take the train, just rmb to download the train schedule and do some proper planning
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Posted by Shirley on August 12, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Hi,
How many hours do you spend on each stop? ie. Jingtong, Pingxi and Shifen.
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Posted by Ling ling on December 4, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Hi there, i like to know if theres any stay which you would reccommend in pingxi?
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
December 6th, 2011 at 11:39 am
hi ling, r u sure that u wana stay there? its more like a day trip place, pingxi is dead quiet at night
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Posted by Ruby on January 3, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Thanks for this post!! It’s very helpful for my trip planning to Ping Xi..now I know I can fly the lantern at Shi Fen too
May I know if we can fly the lantern in April? 
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Posted by ahling14 on January 6, 2012 at 7:26 pm
hi, would like to know is yehliu near here?
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 8:30 am
yes yehliu is nearby dear
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Posted by ahling14 on January 6, 2012 at 7:29 pm
i was planning to go to e places u stated n jiufen n yehliu but was abt blur abt e location.
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Posted by Christie on January 10, 2012 at 12:17 am
Hi… Like your post…
Like to have some advise from you guys… We planning to taipei this march… We planning to yehliu, shifen, jiufen and Keelung nightmarket.. Do you think we could this like in a day…???
Thanks
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kampungboycitygal Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 8:29 am
hi christie. thanks. it would be TOO rush, coz usually one will spend quite some time at jiufen. why not spend a night at jiufen?
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Christie Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Thanks So much for your advise.. noted!!!
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Posted by Christie on January 10, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Hi… Sorry to ask you again… Any nice and not too expensive room to recommend us… thanks
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