Partie du Champagne.,.+*

[ 我們. 沉睡的青春 ]

 

The nostalgia with old rail travel draws visitors to this rail line connecting old mining towns in the mountains of the Taipei County. Pingxi is known for its annual sky lantern festival. The Pingxi rail line is famous among railway fans for its age, story and uniqueness. For me, it was because of a film that I watched a few or two ago that…(continue reading... )

 

在沉睡的青春, 一個年輕人的生命定格, 但他的愛情卻找到了另一個方式延續. 平溪舊鐵路沿路的停靠站, 輝煌的黑金時代消失了, 但過去的點滴卻定格, 成了後人找尋歷史記憶的的一個世外桃源. 我們, 就在這時搭上時光列車, 遠離了...

...繁瑣和吵雜的城市. 好久沒有到山裡去走走了!  有種重獲自由的奇妙感覺. :P

 

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... drew m to this place. The film was filmed here. Here’s a brief excerpt of what the story is about: http://blog.yam.com/perladipace/article/17187668
 

 

早晨的瑞芳車站. 果然還是要一大早出發! 不過時間好像還是不夠...

Waiting for the Pingxi line at the Rueifang Station early in the morning. We left quite early in the morning. But we still missed a few atraction points. If you want to do a very extensive trip along th Pingxi line, you'll probably need 2 consecutive days.

 

我們在大華下了車.

We got off at the Dahua Station and started our morning walk.

 

 

走上了鐵軌. 沿路跟著鐵軌.

Walked on the rail tracks... despite the obvious sign..
 

 

穿過了山洞.

Walked through the tunnel.

 

這邊的火車大約一小時才有一班.

The train only comes once in an hour.

 十分大瀑布 – 現在因產權關係, 現在是不能進入, 只能從外面看.

Shifen Waterfall – You used to be have to pay to go into see the Shifen Waterfall. But there was some issue with the ownership of the land so the place is now closed to visitors.
 
 

 

 

十分觀瀑吊橋 & 下面的眼鏡洞瀑布
The Shifen Scenic Suspension Bridge and a waterfall with a nickname (called "glasses" because of its shape due to water erosion).

 

 

 有點像廢墟的遊客中心. 不過外面看起來是這樣, 裡面倒是看起來還滿 clean + high tech 的. 還有 看起來很新的3D 互動式地圖.


The Tourist Centre in Shifen. It looks a bit like some abandoned building from the outside but it's actually quite new and clean inside. They also have an interactive 3D map that tells you about the different points of interest around here.


 

 但我們早有從雜誌上撕下來的計畫!
我們就朝著台灣煤礦博物館的招牌前進. 


But we had our day planned out with tourist information we collected beforehand. So we headed straight for the Taiwan Coal Mine Museum. 

 

 

 一路上還真的有點荒郊野外, 有點前不見古人, 後不見來者. 倒是野狗特別多.  這邊還只是個山腳下的售票亭.
The path leading to the ticket booth for the Coal Mine Museum is quite deserted. There weren't many people around.. but there were quite a few stray dogs around.

 

賣票的人指了指我們需要繼續走的方向, 我們經過了這個廢棄的洗煤場, 看起來真的像是個荒廢的巨無霸無敵鐵金剛吧. 


The ticket booth person told us to follow a path (which wasn't exactly clear) that would take us around 7 to 8 minutes to get to the small train station where the little mine electric train would pick us up. We passed by this huge Coal Dumping Mill that is now abandoned and left to fall into ruins.

 

我們沒想到今天會要爬山.. 但就是要有一些意想不到的才比較新奇嘛...x)
十一月的台北還是有著夏天的天氣, 雖然之前一直希望颱風不要又來... 不要颳大風下大雨.. 但沒想到會來個超級大晴天. 真的是有點.. 熱...


We weren't expecting to be walking or "hiking", especially in some place like this. But that was also what made our trip more interesting. We weren't expecting the summer like temperature (up to 31'C) in November either. But that was what happened!
 

 

我們在小火車站裡躲太陽, 等了又等, 阿婆終於來了.  
We waited for a while before we heard the huge rumbling sound of this small electric train to pick us up.
 

然後我們開始了我們的馬殺雞小火車之旅. 我們搭著舊式電力發電的運煤台車前往半山腰上的博物館.
這車真的是晃得厲害, 走的聲音更是 "轟隆轟隆"的不用說了.. 不過再怎麼樣, 這樣的火車還是有它輝煌的戰績啊.


Then we got on with our 1.2km "massage" ride in the small electric train that was used to carry coal. it wasn't exactly quiet or comfortable.. but it was a different kind of fun experience (with some historical elements).
 

中間開到一半阿婆突然停車, 我們還想不會發生了什麼引擎故障類的事吧? 結果在火車停下來, 一切突然變得很鴉雀無聲的時候, 就突然聽到阿婆很大聲+很重的台灣腔說... "喂--?"  
阿婆在講手機啦... 大家聽到時都大笑了.


On our way, the old lady who was driving the train stopped suddenly. Then we heard this unbelievable moment of silence (no train sound, no human sound). We thought maybe there is something wrong with the train?! But then shortly, we heard the old lady answered loudly to her mobile phone. & We all bursted out laughing.

 

 

 

 

這的鐵道妙就妙在它是和一般現有的火車十分不同的規格. 而且是台灣第一個電氣化的火車.
一般現有的火車是”滿軌” (十分車), 也就是軌道是 142 cm. 阿里山等的小火車的是五分車, 也就是它們比滿軌的小一半, 大約是 70cm. 而這邊的電器運煤小火車是三分車, 也就是說它們只有十分車的 “三分”, 大約 46cm .

 

 

 

類似打卡的人事牌. 如果一天下來還有哪個人沒回來, 就可從這裡知道. 也許那人出了什麼意外, 但也有可能 (而且是絕大多數) 那人在哪喝醉了或睡著了.


A board for keeping track of who's back. At the end of the day, if they see a white card left on there, they know somehow the person is not back. That person could be in some accident. Or (most likely) the person got drunk or fell asleep somewhere.

 

 

礦工這行業也是有許多禁忌, 那時就有提到, 如果我們有看到礦工的話, 不要照他們, 因為許多礦工還是認為照相可是會把被照的人的靈魂給抽走. 這種聽起來好像是慈禧太后時代的想法, 沒想到到現在還在.


Like any other risky occupation, here are still a lot of taboos with coal mine workers. Since there are still miners workin down there, we were reminded to take photos of them because many of them still believe that taking a photo of someone will take away that person's soul. 
 

 

 

地底下的溫度比外面高又悶熱, 所以礦工那時都是不穿衣服的. 就連女礦工也是. 早期的衣服也比較貴, 所以也有另一個說法是: 衣服破了要補, 但人皮破了不用補 (自己會癒合).


The underground temperature is much higher so that's why mine workers don't wear clothes down there (& that includes, to some degree, women mine workers as well). There was also another saying that because clothes were much expensive back then, it was more expensive to fix repairr their clothes than to repair their own skin.
 

 

 

礦工的收入在當時算是很高的, 他們一星期的薪水, 是老師一個月的薪水. 但為何沒那麼多礦工成了有錢人呢? 有人說, 因為那時大部分的礦工都是沒有儲蓄的概念, 更何況, 這種屬於高危險性的工作, 有能力賺錢, 也可以存錢, 但也說不定來不及花到那些錢.


The income of coal mine workers was relatively high (1 week's of a mine worker's salary is about 1 month of a teacher's salary). But somehow there just weren't a lot of "rich" coal miners around. Perhaps the coal miners back then did not know much about saving $. But perhaps they think if they don't spend the money now, they might not be able to spend it tomorrow (since they could lose their life anytime).

 

救難隊的訓練.
Experience what it's like to walk in a mine. This is for rescue training.

Retired transformers.

 

A portable "ventilator" that provides air to mine workers with carbon monxide poisoning.



One of the many interesting looking antiques.


 
The different tubes that indicates different levels of coal/mine dust level.
 

 
在這邊可以套上服裝拍照.
You can dress up in these costumes and take photos.

 

洋芋片? 其實是靈芝... (haha. 才怪).

Potato chips? NOPE. It’s fungi…

 
 

 View of the Shifen township from the area where we took the little train.
十分寮的景色.

 

台灣煤礦博物館 Taiwan Coal Mine Museum.

W: www.coalmine.com.tw

 

 
 

We walked along the track, finding our way to the old street.
從山上的礦場下來後, 繼續往老街和火車站前進.

 

The old street of Shifen - the most busy part of the town.

十分老街.

 

 但這邊吃的地方卻不多... 還要考慮到火車一小時才有一班, 所以我們就先搭去菁桐找吃的.
 There's not a lot of places to eat here and we had catch the next train (otherwise we'll be stuck here for another hour). So we waited for the train to Jingtong.