Group tour to Taiwan’s north-east coast: Yehliu, Jiufen, and Pingxi

I was in Taiwan for 5 days and 5 nights earlier this year, and after many people had told me that Taiwan is so small you could “do it in a few days”, I saw that as a small challenge. I will say now that I don’t think you could do Taiwan in five days, but you can see a lot of the city of Taipei in just a few! I enjoyed all my days of my holiday, but I did want one of them to be a day trip to see the northeast coast, especially the popular tourist destination of Jiufen. After some research, I ended up paying for a day tour that included transport to that location, as well as Yehliu Geopark—an attraction by a cliffside with dozens of large rock formations as a result of erosion (I love my rocks, you know), and Pingxi—a former mining town where you can fly paper lanterns and also see the Shifen waterfall.

I spent a long time researching various tours. I was trying to pay as much attention as possible to the time spent in each location, as I know that the downside of tours can be how long they give you at each location. I didn’t want anything to feel rushed, or to feel like the group was just visiting a location to take pictures and then leave (lol). The tours to that area of Taiwan more or less included some combination of Yehliu, Jiufen, Pingxi, and locations like other waterfalls or coastal spots, but start times, duration at each location, order in the itinerary, or included meals, differed.

I chose this tour on Tripadvisor and paid about $110 AUD. It included all transport and admission to the attractions, but didn’t include any meals. Ultimately, there was a lot of time spent on the tour bus over the course of the day, but I have heard from other people who made the trek via public transport that it’s a pretty good option to have dedicated transport so you don’t get stuck in queues at train stations.

Thankfully, the weather was pretty good on the day I did the tour. I was worried it would rain, but it was just a bit cloudy. I brought my hat, knowing it probably would shield me from the sun, especially because we would be spending some time outdoors, but there wasn’t much sun to worry about.

🪨 Yehliu Geopark

The tour guide was helpful and spoke very good English. On the bus he pointed out various landmarks and explained some of the city’s history, so it was quite informative. Our first stop was Yehliu Geopark which had me thoroughly enjoying all the unique rock formations. One famous formation was shaped like the late Queen Elizabeth’s head, but had also eroded over the years. Many people queued up to see it. I didn’t care too much for the various shapes the rocks made; I just cared about the rocks themselves.

Visitors stand among Yehliu’s honeycombed rock formations, their dark, rounded caps rising from the sandy-colored stone. — An idea of how large the rocks were up close

A crowded boardwalk winds through Yehliu’s sculpted coastal rocks, with eroded, pitted stone in the foreground. — People queuing to see the rock shaped like the late Queen’s head

A person wearing a yellow scoop neck t-shirt, blue jeans with a rip in the knee, and light coloured hiking boots, with long dark hair. They are standing in the middle of a square cobblestone path with shrubs and short trees on either side of the path — Someone kindly took this photo of me!

Yehliu Geopark’s weathered sandstone formations and rounded rocks frame a coastal path where visitors walk among low green shrubs beneath an overcast sky — Love this landscape

I made the mistake of walking all the way to a lookout at the edge of the park when I didn’t have a lot of time to spare before meeting everyone back at the bus. I made it back in time, but I had to hurry—getting to the lookout took over 20 minutes, so there and back, not even including the time I was enjoying the view, would take 40 minutes. It was a considerably long time to be walking, given that I had already spent time looking at all the rock formations first. I got hot and sweaty from walking in the humidity and didn’t get a chance to look at the market stalls that were just outside the geopark. Oh well. It was certainly not the only opportunity I had to look at food and souvenirs.

A paved path winds through coastal grasses toward the sea, with hazy hills along the distant shoreline — Not too much of a view at the end of the peninsula

🏮 Jiufen

Our next stop was around lunchtime and was Jiufen, where the Old Street is rumoured to be the inspiration for Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away. It is a very popular tourist attraction, and when we arrived I made a beeline for one of the first small restaurants I saw to eat some lunch. I got some dumplings—Taiwan feels like the home of good dumplings, so I had to do it. I hope I also beat some of the lunchtime rush.

A basket of large dumplings, packed closely together, alongside a plate of rice — These were my first dumplings in Taiwan

I also got the sweet snack known as dango, but I wish I had room in my stomach to try more than just one!

A shop displays colorful sweet balls on skewers in red-lined trays, with a menu board showing assorted flavours — So many flavours

There were lots of stores in the town selling food, souvenirs, and other paraphernalia. Foot traffic was slow moving because there were so many people, but I dare say it could have been more crowded. I felt like I had to weave my way around people when I wanted to move faster and walked past shops I knew I wasn’t that interested in.

Stone steps climb between closely packed buildings in Jiufen, with red lanterns hanging along the narrow stairway — The laneways could be quite crowded

It was in Jiufen where I found a couple of pairs of Totoro socks exactly like the pair I bought a long time ago in Japan (I think?!) and was dying to replace with an exact replica. I ended up buying two of them. I don’t know why so many Totoro socks have the face printed on the top of the sock, or as a repeating pattern, but hardly any have the design where the grinning Totoro face is on the inside and outside of the ankle part of the sock.

Grey crew socks with a grinning cartoon on the ankle part of the sock, resembling the feline character Totoro. — Totoro, totoro 🎶😸

I tried dango—the snack that this emoji 🍡 is inspired by—a glutinous rice snack that is chewy and soft, without being too chewy—a little like mochi, but I would say softer. I was so excited by the taste of these and wish I had more flavours. There were so many opportunities to try them in Taiwan, but so many other street food and snacks I wanted to leave room in my stomach for, too!

🏞️ Shifen Waterfall

Our next stop was the Shifen waterfall. There were a lot of tour groups when we got there, and it was a short walk from where the bus dropped us off, to the waterfall. I do like waterfalls so it was a lovely sight.

Colorful koi swim beneath the reflective water beside a mossy stone edge and green ferns — Love koi fish, so pretty

Water spills over a broad, uneven rock ledge into a deep green pool, framed by dense forest. — Incredible waterfall

A wide view of Shifen Waterfall flowing through a forested valley beneath cloudy skies — A wider view

I got a snack here—it was peanut-butter filled glutinous rice balls in the shape of cats. They were actually quite filling, and I kept some in my bag for later. It was a bit of a long wait, so if you have limited time in this area, I recommend ordering food as soon as you can. In terms of the waterfall, it was beautiful, but otherwise it was not a must-see.

A person at a stall with some metal trays, preparing food. They are wearing a black cap and a grey top, and there is a hanging lamp above them — A person preparing the snacks fresh

A person’s hand holding a paper bag filled with a cat-shaped battered snack — There were other flavours including black sesame, but I chose peanut

🛤️ Pingxi and decorating and releasing lanterns

Our last stop was the old town by the railway where we got to paint messages on paper lanterns and release them into the sky. This is the only place you can legally release lanterns in Taiwan.

People gather beside the railway tracks in Pingxi, Taiwan, with old shops lining the street and small lanterns floating overhead. — A popular tourist attraction

A yellow train approaches through Pingxi’s crowded old street as visitors watch from beside the tracks. — Oncoming train—people had to be quick to move out of the way when they heard the warning signal

In the tour group, we had to share between 3 to 4 people. I only ended up sharing with one other person, since the third person who was supposed to share with us decided to walk around and roam the shops instead of participating. It’s not such a big deal to be sharing a lantern with someone else, but if you do the tour with people you know, that would obviously be a little better! I was a bit stumped on what well wishes to paint on the lantern. I got really put on the spot, haha.

Two people smiling, standing on a train track holding up a large red balloon lantern with “Love & joy” written on it with a small cube character. Both people have their thumb and index finger pinched to make a small heart shape. There is a crowd of people in the background on the train tracks as well. — I shared a lantern with this person, and this message is one of the two that I wrote. The person who took the photo directed us with the poses 🫰🏼

The tour ended a bit earlier than I thought it would. When I booked, I expected to be back at the pickup location closer to 8:00pm or so, but we were back before 5:30pm. There was the option to be dropped at the Taipei 101 tower, so I decided to hop off the bus there, since I hadn’t seen the tower yet.

In all honesty, the tower wasn’t for me—there was a bunch of upmarket, “fancy” stores, none of which I felt like looking in. There was a food court, so I got myself dinner and then left. It was a bit like a maze in there and difficult to find the exit. 🤦🏻‍♀️ It was kind of embarrassing walking around and asking for help, but I was pretty close to having a panic attack because I felt quite trapped in there. I hadn’t really had that in the train stations or anything, because signage was fine, but something about the lower levels of the Taipei 101 tower had me so lost. I did eventually get out. 😮‍💨

After that, I decided to have an earlier night and relaxed back at my hotel. It had been a long day.