A Day in Taichung

Taichung is the second largest city in Taiwan and has a very warm climate compared to Taipei. Taichung is a major political, economic, transportation and cultural hub during the Japanese occupation. The city was able to preserve many of its historic sites and retain the original “chessboard” street plan from the Japanese era. We spent a day touring the sunny city of Taichung.

Taichung is a city with a lot of things to offer. One of the most popular places to visit is the Houli Flower farm. Houli Flower farm is a picturesque farm known for its different flowers and instagrammable spots. You will spend hours just taking photos in this place. Most famous spot to take photo is beside the windmill and the piano in the middle of flowers. Aside from the vast span of flower fields, there is an area where you can eat. The entrance fee to Houli Flower farm is NT120 and you get to be surrounded by beautiful flowers.

If you like ice cream, Miyahara is the place for you. Miyahara is a red brick architecture built by an ophthalmologist, Miyahara Takeo in 1927. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the building became Taichung Health Bureau. However, the Heath Bureau got suspended and the building became unused and started to decay. Fortunately, a pastry company acquired the building and preserved the original red-brick wall and archway. The Miyahara building became the home for Dawn Cake’s famous pineapple cake and signature ice cream.

The Miyahara ice cream parlour is outside the building but you will never miss it because of the long line of people buying ice cream. Try the assorted flavors of ice cream and choose various toppings like pineapple cake, cheesecake and many more! Since Miyahara is a popular place, it can easily get busy and lines can get very long. There are many signatures ice cream flavor that it is hard to choose which to pick. They have wide array of tea-infused flavor ice cream, chocolate flavors, fruit flavour and the Miyahara Special. The staff will hand you the menu while waiting in line. One scoop of ice will cost you NT$90 and you get a free topping. Two scoops are NT$160 which will get you two toppings. If you order three scoops, it will cost NT$225 with three toppings. You also have an option to add a waffle coin which is NT$20.

After having ice cream at Miyahara, we went to Rainbow Village. The Rainbow Village is a former military dependents' village that was converted into street art in Nantun District. Huang Yong-Fua retired soldier began painting the walls of his home and surrounding buildings in 2010 in an attempt to have them preserved. Rainbow village consists of a few homes with different colorful mural painting. You can go around the place and take your photo in ten minutes. The Rainbow Village became a popular instagrammable place because of its colorful paintings. Aside from taking photos there are no other activity in Rainbow Village.

The last place we visited is the Gaomei Wetlands which is located on the south of the mouth of Dajia River. The soils in Gaomei wetlands is mixed with mud and sand which made is a very good breeding place of diversified organisms of both plants and animals.

Gaomei Wetlands is characterized by a row of wind turbines. There are patches of sedge grass which is one of the few plants that can survive on a water with high salt content. I was hoping to see the sunset during our visit but it was cloudy on that day. Gaomei wetlands is a windy place and can become a bit cold. There are some food stalls near the parking area. The best sun cake in Taiwan is located in Gaomei Wetlands. The store is just in the entry of the parking area.

A day is not enough to see the beauty that Taichung can offer.

An Afternoon in Shifen

Shifen Waterfall is a picturesque waterfall located in Pingxi District on the upper reached of the Keelung River. It is the broadest waterfall in Taiwan with a total height of 20 meters (66 ft) and width of 40 meters (130 ft). It is a cascade waterfall in which the water flows in one direction and the rock sloped in the opposite. We went to the waterfall on an afternoon. There were a lot of tourists like us wanting to see the waterfall. 

To reach the waterfall you will have to pass on a suspended bridge. Adjacent to the bridge is a functioning train railroad. After passing the bridge, you will pass by at a small temple. After that you will reach the food stalls and waterfall. After the food stall, you will see the majestic waterfall. There are several viewpoints of the waterfall, and it is mostly crowded of tourist. However, each viewpoint will give you a stunning look at the waterfall.

Shifen Waterfall is open daily from 9AM to 4:30PM and its free. I would suggest going early to avoid the crowd.

A few walk away from Shifen waterfall is the Shifen oldstreet which is popular for its sky lanterns. Tourists flocks the Pingxi Railway Line to write their wishes on the lantern and release them on the sky in the middle of the train tracks.

The custom of releasing sky lanterns can be traced back to the Fujian province of China. In the middle of 1800s, the Pingxi area is full of bandits. The local villagers would send up sky lanterns to inform others that it was safe to pick up supplies. The locals started to writing wishes to the gods on the lanterns since it goes high into the sky.

The price for a sky lantern and Shifen is TWD 200 (single color, red is the most common), 250 (four colors), or 350 (8 colors). Each color of the lantern has a meaning. Once you light up the lantern and release it, it will immediately go up. One of the vendors will assist you in arranging the lantern so that you can write your wishes. They will also assist you in releasing your lantern and they will take photos of you releasing the lantern.

You can also buy some souvenir items on the stores selling lanterns. There are a lot of lantern keychains. Aside from shops selling lanterns, there are also some food stalls along the train tracks.