When visiting Taiwan, most people only go to Taipei but they don't know that there any many other cities in Taiwan that are worth visiting, such as Taichung. Taichung is only two hours away from Taipei by bus and there are faster alternatives to get there like the TRA and HSR. You can read more from my Taiwan summary post.
Public transportation in Taichung can be quite inconvenient as their MRT system is still under construction. You can take the taxi which is the easiest way to travel around but it can be costly. Another way is to take the bus but I don't really recommend as it can be confusing for tourists since they're all in Mandarin. For places further away from the city, I would recommend finding a tour guide or hiring a driver.
I hired a private tour guide on my second day in Taichung. He brought us to explore around the Xinshe area but you can pick where you want to visit and he'll arrange it with you. If you're interested you can contact them through FB here.
Here's a list of places you can visit when you're in Taichung:
Fengjia Night Market
Fengjia Night Market is the biggest and also the most famous night market in Taichung. There's a large variety of shops and stalls available selling street food, drinks, clothing, accessories and games. The area starts getting busy at around 6pm and closes midnight but they're opened for longer hours on weekends or on holidays.
There are so many snack stalls to choose from and we couldn't decide which to buy so we just go with whichever that has a long queue. This Devil Fried Chicken is one of the best XXL fried chicken I've had in Taiwan! There was also a long queue at this "small sausage in large sausage" stall. This Taiwanese snack is a pork sausage wrapped in a sticky rice sausage and it's definitely worth trying!
Carton King
Carton King is Taiwan's first and only paper zoo. Almost everything here is made of corrugated paper such as animals, famous structures, chairs, tables and even a train for children to ride on. The entrance fee is NT200 but the ticket includes a NT100 voucher which you can use to purchase food and souvenirs.
Muxinquan Leisure Farm
We visited Taiwan in the beginning of spring which is the time where cherry blossoms bloom. Our private tour guide brought us to Muxinquan Leisure Farm which was filled with beautiful pink cherry blossoms. This is one of the most beautiful places I visited in Taiwan! It would be impossible to get there by public transportation because the roads are too narrow for buses to go through so the only way is by hiring a driver or a private tour guide. You can still visit the farm on other seasons as there are different flowers blooming on different seasons.
Ticket is NT150 for one person but you'll get a NT100 voucher to spend on food and souvenirs.
There's a restaurant at the entrance of the farm and they serve mainly hot pots and sizzling food. It was a holiday when we visited so the restaurant was extremely packed and we had to queue for 40 minutes just to order our food and they took 20 minutes to come. I'd recommend you to visit this place on a working weekday to avoid the crowd.
Ah Liang's Mushroom Garden
A large proportion of Taiwan's mushrooms are grown in Xinshe. We dropped by Ah Liang's Mushroom Garden to take a look at how they're being cultivated and picked. There's a wide variety of mushrooms grown here such as shitake, enokitake, oyster mushrooms and lingzhi. They also sell some mushroom snacks and packed food which you can bring home to your friends and family as souvenir.
Qian Hua Garden
According to our tour guide, many Taiwanese idol dramas were filmed in this garden. There are many different kinds of plants and flowers here but there isn't anything special. Our tour guide brought us here because he could bring us in for free. Usually visitors would have to pay for a fee of NT100 to enter. There's a Western restaurant here that serves course meals but we didn't stay for that.
Laoyuzai Taro Balls
This shop selling taro balls is very famous among the locals. The queue is long during anytime of the day but I promise you it is worth the wait. We ordered their mixed taro balls to get a taste of everything. In a bowl, you get pearls, taro balls, sweet potato balls, red beans, yam and more. Their taro balls are so chewy and they aren't too sweet, just perfect! And the best thing is that it is super affordable, only NT45 for such a big bowl!
Miyahara
This place is formerly an eye hospital and it now sells pastries, teas, chocolates and more, packed in pretty boxes to bring home as souvenirs. The interior of the building was beautifully designed to match the old library theme, even the packaging of its products are designed to look like books.
Most people visit Miyahara for their famous ice cream. They have the most unique menu I've ever seen I mean look at the number of choices of flavours they have! The price isn't too expensive too, since they come with large scoops and free toppings.
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| Fruit flavours |
Their toppings are not your typical chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles kind of toppings. They have cheesecakes, pineapple tarts, red bean cake and many more you can choose from. We chose cheesecake and green tea cake to eat with our ceylon black tea and Uganda 80% smoked chocolate ice cream. It was one of the best ice creams I had in my life and I would've eaten again if I had more time in Taichung.
Thank you for reading! Hope this post has helped you with your planning to Taichung. There are so many more beautiful places in this city that we didn't get to visit but hopefully we'll come back soon! I've also written a post about Taipei if you're also planning to go there. Read it here.
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