Jiufen's name means "nine portions". In the early Qing dynasty it was a remote village of nine families, and the story goes that they asked for nine portions of everything shipped up from town. It sits in the hills of Ruifang District, in what is now New Taipei City, a short bus ride from Ruifang station.
Gold changed it. In 1890 workers building the Taipei–Keelung railway found gold flakes, and by 1893 a rich placer district in the hills was yielding several kilograms a day. The rush turned the village into a town, and it peaked under Japanese rule; many of the Japanese-era inns still stand. During the Second World War the nearby Kinkaseki camp held Allied prisoners, many of them British, who were put to work in the mines.
Mining fell away after the war, and when the mine closed in 1971 the town was all but forgotten. What brought it back was Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, released in 1989 — the first film to deal with the February 28 incident, then a taboo subject in Taiwan, and set in Jiufen. Tourists followed in the early 1990s, and with them retro cafés, teahouses and souvenir shops, some named after the film. From 2001 a second wave came from Japan, drawn by the town's resemblance to the town in Spirited Away, though Hayao Miyazaki has denied that Jiufen was his model.
Anavrin's kit is not a particular building but one of the old-street alleys: storefronts with patrons, hanging lanterns, traditional Chinese roof tiles and cherry blossom in full bloom, with Taiwan's night-market snacks among the details. Anavrin says it was inspired by a trip one of its team made to Taiwan. It comes as 593 pre-cut, pre-coloured wooden pieces that build to 8.6 × 5.9 × 9.4 in at a stated 1:24, with LED strings that run on three AA batteries (not included), auxiliary tools and Chubbs, Anavrin's cat figure, in a random colour; glue, scissors and tweezers are left out for shipping. Anavrin rates it intermediate, about five to six hours. Its own product page has since been withdrawn. Viendor, the Vietnamese workshop that designed and built kits for Anavrin until their partnership ended, sells a Jiu Fen book nook of its own (BN006) with the same 593-piece count.