Temples

As in every Chinese community there is a wide variety of temples to be found in Taichung. The most renowned are the unadorned Confucius Temple on Shuang-shi Road and the Bao Jue Temple on Jian-xing Road with its famous pot-belly Buddha, the only Zen-temple in the city. Strewn all over the city are numerous examples of heavily ornamented Tao-temples or less decorated Buddhist temples and shrines.

 
Parks

There are several big and small parks to enjoy in Taichung. Probably the most famous is Taichung Park downtown with its lagoon for rowing boats. There also is a stage towards the back that always features some form of "entertainment" albeit a woman singing with a Karaoke machine. All types of Chinese society pass through the park's gates so it's a good people watching place. On Sundays, especially, it gets crowded with families taking a stroll or old men playing mahjong, but toward nightfall it gets a little seamy. Best to head out by then.

The biggest park opened in 2001 to the west of Taichung and the Metropolitan Park is certainly worthy of a visit. It draws big crowds of families, kite lovers and casual strollers. Original design combined with the mere size and space and the splendid view of both the ocean to the west and Taichung City to the east, make it a nice destination for a half-day trip. Bicycles and tandems for rent; decent coffee shop on the premises. For a review and directions, visit the site.

The Taichung Folklore Park (#73, Section 2, Lu-shun Rd.), close to the intersection of Wen-xin Rd. and Cong-de Rd., is a nice re-creation of a traditional Chinese village of years ago with some craftsmen present and working. There's a rudimentary folklore museum in the basement of the traditional Chinese house in the right corner. The Arts and Crafts shops sell typical souvenirs. Your student ID from Feng Chia University can qualify you for a student discount (only NT$ 20), so bring it with you here as well as when you go to other cultural places. Open Tuesday through Friday from 09:00 to 17:30 and the weekends from 09:00 to 19:00.

On the outskirts of town to the east, where the hills meet the plain, is Da-keng Park with its challenging hiking trails (eight all together now) and interesting playground with barbecue facilities, an amusement park and water world, and Encore Gardens, which features nightly sound and light shows. If you like to see water dancing to traditional Chinese ballads and pop hits, then this is your place. Avoid the Da-keng trails on Sundays (unless at the break of dawn) if you don't want to walk and climb in an endless line.

The Feng-le Sculpture Park is a relatively new addition to the city's tourist attractions. With its arched bridges, waterfall, artificial lake, kids' playground, activity center, walking paths and of course the 52 pieces of statues, the result from previous outdoors competition, this area is a nice oasis of green and calm. (intersection of Wen-xin South Road and Yong-chun E. 1st Road).

As said before, if you really want to stay in touch with what goes on in and around Taichung, your best bet is to get a copy of the Compass magazine or to log on to the website, which now also has started to cover almost all of Taiwan.

For information about Taichung County, please go to the website of the Taichung County Government.