The hook
A single-track coal railway built in the 1920s, now running tourists up a green gorge past a waterfall, a village that belongs to its cats, and the ruins of the mines the line was laid for.
01Why it's worth it
The Pingxi line branches off the main coast railway at Ruifang and climbs the Keelung River valley on tracks originally laid to bring coal down. The coal is gone; the line survived because the valley is beautiful and the villages found things to be.
Houtong is the one worth the most time, and the reason is not the obvious one. It is famous as a cat village — a former mining settlement whose colony of cats got adopted as its identity — but a Taiwanese commenter's correction is the better instruction: "Houtong is not only a cat village! I strongly recommend to visit the old coal mine facilities, on both sides of the river." The processing plant, the tipple and the miners' housing are still standing, and largely unrestored.
Shifen has the waterfall — a broad curtain-type fall, genuinely good — and the Old Street, where the railway runs between the shopfronts and people release paper sky lanterns from the tracks. See the honest note.
Pingxi and Jingtong at the top of the line are quieter, with more mine ruins and less foot traffic.
The line is designed for exactly this: buy a one-day pass, ride to the end, work back down, get off wherever looks good.
02How to experience it
Train to Ruifang, then the branch line with a day pass. Do it on a weekday — the difference is large. A well-tested order from a local: start at Shifen for the waterfall in the morning, lunch there, then Houtong, then over to Jiufen for late afternoon and the tea houses after dark. Give it a full day.
The honest note
The sky lanterns are litter, and the people who live under them say so most clearly. The sharpest account is from a Filipino visitor: "I HATE SHIFEN. Not shifen itself pero yung sky lanterns. If you ever hike sa mga katabing forests/trails, makikita mo kung saan bumabagsak yung mga lanterns and andami nila. Nagkalat. Yung mga nagpupulot is usually yung mga matatanda and nakakaawa sila if kelangan nilang akyatin yung mga nasa taas ng puno. There are other nicer places near shifen." — you can see where the lanterns come down in the surrounding forest, and there are so many; the people picking them up are usually the elderly, and it is pitiful when they have to climb trees to reach them.
A Taiwanese account agrees from the other end: "as I got there a few of the lanterns were actually landing on parked cars. The food was the same as you can get at a night market but even more overpriced. The lantern gimmick I guess gets the foreigner tourists because Shifen had a ton of tourists. Definitely an unimpressive place besides." You can ride this line, see the waterfall and skip the lantern entirely.
The tracks at Shifen are live. People stand on them to pose and to launch lanterns, and the comment above comes from a thread about a tourist being struck by a train in Taiwan. Trains are frequent and quiet. Treat the rails as rails.
Do not arrive expecting Niagara. Shifen is marketed as "Taiwan's Niagara", and a Taiwanese reply to that framing is the correct calibration: "You've never been to Niagara Falls, have you? Shifen is a great waterfall though."
Crowds are concentrated and predictable. On Pingxi's main road, a local notes it is "full of people ONLY for festivals. There are barely any pedestrians on normal days." That cuts both ways: avoid the Lantern Festival, and the rest of the year is quiet.
Jiufen, the usual pairing, is contested by locals. Worth knowing before you build the day around it: "As a Taiwanese, Jiufen is too overrated. I never understood the hype. I only been there once in my life in my 20's and never will go there again. It's nothing special to be frank and not worth the time there but if you're a foreigners then it's different story."
love is scored low here. The line is recommended constantly and warmly, but the first-person accounts that go beyond a name are mostly critical of Shifen. The warmest thing anyone says about actually riding it is "picturesque and informative".
From the locals
The most useful endorsement is from someone who does it repeatedly rather than once: "I try to fit in regular day trips up and down the Pingxi train line (especially Houtong as I'm a bona fide 貓奴 — cat slave). It's picturesque and informative, and I think each village has done a decent job of finding something unique about itself to hang the tourism hook on."
The standard itinerary, given unprompted to someone with a child: "start in the morning with your first destination being Shifen. Catch the waterfalls, grab lunch and then go over to Houtong, Taiwan's cat village. Your kid might have some fun there. You can stroll around, visit some cafes, and then go over to Jiufen closer to sunset."
And it appears in the shortlist whenever anyone asks whether Taipei is worth a week: "Totally recommend Taipei and the surrounding day trips to jiufen, yangmingshan National Park and shifen and pingxi!"