Taichung travel info

Walk into the red-brick building across from Taichung Station and you're facing display shelves that climb to the ceiling like a giant wooden bookcase. In the 1920s this was an eye clinic; now it's Miyahara, an ice cream and pastry shop. Queue for a cup with toppings, cross the road to an old bank building for a box of pineapple cakes, and your first hour in Taichung is gone. The old station's white clock tower still stands beside the new elevated one.

After dark, follow the students to Fengjia Night Market. The lanes outside the university gate turn into one long run of stalls: big sausages sizzling on grills, cubes of beef flame-seared with a blowtorch, and a different frying smell every block. Next day, walk the green strip of Calligraphy Greenway to Shenji New Village, where old civil-servant housing now holds tiny shops, and stop for a bubble tea at Chun Shui Tang, which says it invented the drink.

Taichung gets far less rain than Taipei, and from October to April most days are clear and good for walking. Taichung has its own small international airport; otherwise land at Taoyuan and the high-speed rail gets you downtown in about an hour and a half. Around sunset, head to the coast at Gaomei Wetland, where the evening light spreads across the tidal flats under a long line of wind turbines.

Taichung International Airport (RMQ)

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)