I decided to participate in the Gold Panning Experience recommended by the tourist assistant at the Tourist Office of the Gold Ecological Park. It was one of the two paid attractions in the park, the other is the Tunnel Experience.
After I visited the Prince's Chalet, I immediately went to the stairs leading to the Gold Ecological Museum on the far left side. It was a hike going up...heh.
The first thing I saw was the wooden platform with a small train track used my miners from long time ago for transporting cargo There's a wooden crate-like carriages for visitors to hop on for taking pictures. Up ahead was a foot bridge, and a view of the Teapot Mountain, and of course, the Museum.
I was surprised to see a lot of teens in the area. I think they're on a vacation of some sorts and they seem to be classmates or relatives from the US or something. Like a school trip? Anyway, they were waiting for the Gold Panning Experience to start, too.
I bought a ticket at the ticket counter. It costs just NTD 100.00 (Php 160.00), and it was all worth it. Where else can you experience gold panning?
This is the ticket counter.
The gold panning experience is conducted on the topmost floor.
You can see one of the guides going down from the gold panning floor.
Then it was time for our gold panning experience. We were led to the uppermost floor and we were asked to pick a seat. The seats were wooden stools lined up along two concrete boxes where we'd do gold panning. There were at lest 3 or 4 instructors or guides but the instructions were in Chinese. I don't understand Chinese, but luckily, the large group of teenage kids had a translator with them, so I listened to their translator for directions! So lucky! Also, one of the guides helped me because she knew I was a foreigner. Yay!
Gold panning is not easy, and finding the gold specks takes a lot of time. We only had a small, saucer containing our prepared small rocks, pebbles and sand. And we have to sift repeatedly to find the gold. But once you see the gold dust glittering in the small bottles they provided, you'll feel really, really happy and proud of your achievement.
These are the steps in gold panning:
1. Dip the small plate into the water; mix the water and the particles then throw away the rocks back into the water.
2. Repeat the sifting ad infinitum until there are no rocks left.
3. Fill the plate with water, and swirl the plate around until only the lightest particles remain in the center. Throw the water and the sand out.
4. Repeat the step until you can see the gold specks and there's only a little sand left.
5. Carefully transfer the sand and the gold specks from the plate to the small bottle.
6. Go to the faucet and fill the bottle with clean water until the water becomes clear. Cap it off.
7. Test if you've gotten a lot of gold specks (lucky) or not. Swirl the contents of the bottle until the sand settles on the bottom. Lift the bottle towards the light and squeal when you see the gold specks.
After the gold panning experience, I wandered around just for a bit, taking pictures everywhere. To my utter delight, I heard someone speaking in Filipino; they're a family of Filipino-Chinese. If they didn't speak Filipino, I would not have known they're Pinoys. I asked the mother if they could kindly take my photos, and the husband did! I was so happy!
If I was not alone, I would have explored the area more. There are a lot to see at the Gold Ecological Park, even a Shinto shrine, some 600m hike from the museum.
See the arrow? That's the Shinto Shrine.
It's 600m from the stairs.
A miner's lunch in this eatery.
It was still closed but it opened by lunchtime.
Find the Teapot Mountain.
The marker says its 4000 m away.
Guess what this is.
And, I didn't get into the tunnel because I didn't see anyone lined up for the tunnel experience. I also forgot to go to the Gold Ecological Museum where the huge gold bar is. Yup, I am really a total loser to forget all the important things.
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