Chiufe n, an old gold-mining town northeast of Taipei, is crammed with tourists on weekends. But Chinkuashi, an older mining town just two kilometers away, remains still and silent. It has no charming art galleries or giftshops. There are no warm teashops to welcome couples looking for a romantic place to chat. Perched on a cliff above the blue-green sea and surrounded by mountains, it looks and feels like a remote outpost. In Chinkuashi, more ghosts than people walk the streets. It wasn't always this way. In 1889, Patu Station, a small village near Chinkuashi, was a lively place. Hundreds of workers came that humid summer to build a railway bridge across the Keelung River; among them a Cantonese man who had panned for gold in California. While working in the shadow of the iron bridge, he tried his luck by dipping a pan into the river sand. When he saw bits of gold in his pan, he laughed out loud and danced around in the shallow water.





品味金瓜石的静懿(上)

位于台北东北方的产金古镇——九份在周末时经常涌入大批游客。然而仅隔两公里之遥、更为古老的矿业城镇——金瓜石却是一片沉静与死寂。金瓜石没有迷人的艺术馆或礼品店，更没有暖烘烘的茶馆迎接寻找浪漫地点聊天的情侣们。由于坐落在蔚蓝碧海旁的峭壁上又被群山环抱，金瓜石在视觉与感觉上，都像一处偏远的前哨站。在金瓜石，走在街上的幽灵比人还多。

但金瓜石并非一直如此。1889年，金瓜石附近的小村落──八堵站──曾是一个热闹的地方。在那个湿热的夏季，数百名工人前来建造横跨基隆河的铁桥，其中有一名广东工人曾在加利福尼亚淘过金。当他在铁桥下阴凉处干活时，随手把淘金盘浸入河沙中淘了淘，想碰碰运气。当他看见盘里的一粒粒黄金时，高声欢呼起来，并在浅溪里手舞足蹈。