Zeng Jianwen, curator of Jiufen Gold Ore Museum demonstrates the traditional way to wash gold. [Photo by Lin Jinghua / China Daily]

Gold, the town's heritage

Just as persistence paid off for many of those miners, I find that wondering aimlessly often delivers rich rewards. Eventually, wanting to break free of the tourist crowd, I turned off the street I was walking down and saw before me Jiufen Gold Ore Museum.

The three-story yellow edifice is not particularly conspicuous, and in fact looks like a residential building. A notice inside a small window explained that because the museum had few staff, a bell needed to be rung to receive attention, and a woman duly came.

In an area made to look like a mine there was a mine wagon, a miner's clothes and a miner's lamp, and the young woman explained the exhibits.

After finishing her demonstration she beckoned a workmate, shouting toward the upper floors: "Uncle, it's your turn."

Upstairs, minerals of various sorts and mining equipment were on display. A man in his 50s appeared and said that "this used to be my father's museum" as he gave a demonstration of the traditional way of turning raw gold into a product for sale, including how to wash it and grind it.

It seemed that the museum was so close to the heart of the man's father that before he died he worried about its future.