Taiwan is an up-and-coming country for tourists. It’s a great place for people keen on East and Southeast Asia without breaking the budget. Thanks to the friendly locals, excellent infrastructure, and for the most part, a fair amount of English signage, it’s an easy destination for those who want to see something entirely different without testing their comfort zones. Still, with the modern architecture and Taiwan’s recognition as one of the best countries for tech geeks, we could all use a breather and some exercise to work off all that pearl milk tea.

Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布) is one of the recommended nature-related hotspots to visit, placed on the map thanks to its beauty, and the nearby Old Village famous for their floating lanterns. Located 60-90 minutes away from Taipei city, the train passes the nearby Houtong Cat Village (猴硐貓村), for a great little stop-off on the way back to Taipei.

Getting There

We left from Keelung, but there are plenty of options for buses and trains to get to Shifen. One must be careful – our experiences in Taiwan are that they’re fairly reliable with punctuality, but the schedules can be inconsistent. It’s best to search up the journey before to figure out the best times to take the bus or train, to prevent waiting too long for your commute. You can use the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) website to search for the journey by train. If your search yields no results, be sure to select “Accept Transfers”, as this is not automatically calculated for you.

There are also buses from Taipei to Ruifang Train Station, but following that, the most convenient method by far is the train. The Houtong Cat Village Station is around halfway to Shifen Station from Ruifang Station. In Shifen, the tracks literally go through the village, creating a unique atmosphere to which visitors flock for some incredible photos. You can use the Taiwan-wide transport cards such as iPass and EasyCard for these TRA trains.

Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布)

The Walk and Accessibility

We noticed that several bike rental shops suggest heavily the use of scooters for a “60 minute walk”, but this is not the case at all. Though leisurely, we got to the waterfall within half of that time, or even less, and much of the time was spent figuring out the right direction. Furthermore, the area surrounding the waterfall – or, at least on the path we took – is inaccessible to vehicles thanks to numerous stairs. If you can help it, we recommend taking the walk.

From the Shifen Village, there are several paths to the waterfall, which are marked by multiple signposts, though a little ambiguously. We recommend using a smartphone GPS to prevent from getting lost. At a specific fork in the road at the start of the Scenic Area there are 2 directions you can go: the left (top) road will take you to the visitor’s centre and a bridge you will have to cross to get to the waterfall. The right (bottom) road is a little longer, with more stairs, but takes you right along the water’s edge for much more stunning views and a scenic walk. As such, we recommend taking the right-hand path to the waterfall.

There may be multiple routes to the waterfall but the main walking route from the Shifen Village area is not wheelchair-friendly. Both the paths mentioned will converge at a bridge which requires you to descend a large flight of stairs.

At the scenic walk area, which is the surrounding area of the waterfall, there are disability access elevators, which means that the road may be accessible from the other side of the waterfall, away from the village. While the footpaths are generally not slippery despite it having rained on the day we went, there are still some steep hills and stairs to get to specific platforms for the best view of the waterfall.

The Scenic Area and Opening Hours

Strangely, this waterfall has opening hours. Every evening from 5pm they close the gates which includes cutting off the scenic area. Otherwise, during opening hours, the entrance to the scenic area has plenty of refreshments, varying from drinks to snacks and cooked street food. There are also plenty of seats.

Shifen’s Floating Lanterns

These floating lanterns have earned fame for the uniqueness of its experience, and the stunning photographs that can result from setting one off. These lanterns are large – around 1 metre (3 feet) tall, and come in multiple colours which indicate different wishes or fortunes. You’re then given pens to write your wishes or dreams onto the sides before the lantern is lit and released to float away.

A single-coloured lantern costs NTD150 (US$4.95), and multiple-coloured lanterns cost NTD200 (US$6.60), which we feel is very reasonable for an experience of that sort. However, we did not participate in this, as we aren’t sure of the environmental impact of the activity. There seems to be no indication of whether the lanterns are retrieved once they return, nor whether they will biodegrade wherever they end up. As such, we can’t tell anyone not to do this, but we do ask that you remain considerate of the potential consequences of using one of these lanterns.

Shifen’s Shopping and Food

Along either side of the railway tracks is Shifen Old Street, which is lined with dozens of souvenir shops and eateries. We found the souvenir shops to be varied; though the prices were similar, each had a couple of items that couldn’t be found in other shops, such as magnets or keychains of a certain design.

There are many souvenirs relevant to the surrounding area such as for Shifen Waterfall, Jiufen Old Street, Yehliu Geopark, and Houtong Cat Village. There is also much emphasis on owls, which is considered a guardian in Taiwan. There are also plenty of snacks and street food vendors, but for the most part there are few restaurants in the main Old Street area in which to sit down, and much of the food can be found all over Taiwan. If you venture outside of the Old Street and into the main village, there are more options.

It’s easy to spend a couple of hours in Shifen area, but we found there was little else to do besides the lanterns and the walk to the waterfall. As such, we suggest combining it with a stop-off at Houtong Cat Village on the return trip back to Taipei – or, in our case, Keelung.

Houtong Cat Village (猴硐貓村)

Recommended by CNN as one of the top places for cat lovers in the world, Houtong began as a mining town. However, since the industry diminished in the 1990s, with many of the young locals leaving for more prosperous opportunities in bigger cities, it struggled to attract residents to its dwindling population.

It wasn’t until 2008 when a cat-lover began caring for abandoned cats and documenting them on social media that the village began to receive more attention. The rest is history – it’s now a thriving tourist attraction, an area with cats to spare, cat-themed cafes and restaurants, and plenty of cat-related art and souvenirs for those who even marginally like either.

Things to Do

The village is not very large, consisting mostly of the train station at the centre, with a few shops on either side. The eateries offer general Taiwanese fare in the shape of paws or cats, and some souvenir stores offer traditional Taiwanese pineapple cakes in these shapes too. There are a couple of souvenir stores west of the train station which have a large selection of postcards drawn by local artists. There’s no shortage of options, so you can really spend a while taking a look around.

There is also a small, neat coal mine museum with some information and relics from that period in the village’s history. This is free entry with information in Chinese and English, but it is quite small, so we didn’t spend more than 10 or 15 minutes there.

Overall, with the size of the village there isn’t a lot of things to do, and many of its shops shut down early in the evening, by around 6pm. As such, it makes for a good secondary destination if you’re in the area for Shifen or Jiufen, but even with the photo opportunities and the dozens of kitties around, we wouldn’t recommend that it requires a full day to itself.

Things to Keep in Mind: the Rules of the Village

With things of desire, there come people who seek to take advantage, and unfortunately Houtong is no exception to this rule. Since establishing its status as a haven for cats, the village has seen several of its cats kidnapped or stolen by tourists who spot a cat to their liking. Similarly, the opposite is true, with Taiwanese locals visiting to rid themselves of unwanted pets, creating a problem out of what seemed to be a solution to Houtong’s declining economy. As such, there are several strict rules in place to ensure the safety and comfort of these cats, which we encourage that you follow out of respect.

These cats are taken care of by local volunteers, who sterilise the population to keep it from increasing to unmanageable numbers. Still, they post signs in Chinese and English reminding visitors that the cats are animals and should be treated as such. They strongly advise not to touch or feed the cats, disturb, approach, or make too much noise around them, in order to maintain a boundary between the tourists that visit and the cats that inhabit the area.

That being said, it’s a lovely little place for a visit, especially for those who love anything about cats.