Visit Lanyang Museum, the pride of Yilan, Taiwan

The first three days in Taipei, I traveled a lot and explored countless natural landscapes of Taiwan. By day 4, I want to slow down and deeply learn more about Taiwan. I love museums, and every city I’ve been to, I always visit its museums from the Louvre in Paris, to ArtScience in Singapore. So, Taiwan is also no exception. I went on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, so many museums were closed, but I did not give up but continued to searching for information and discovered Lanyang Museum in Yilan County. Just looking at the museum pictures, I decided to come here immediately. Now, joining me to discover Lanyang Museum (Lanyang Museum Taiwan) — a must-visit place and the pride of Yilan, Taiwan.

How to get to Lanyang Museum from Taipei?

From Taipei Main Station, take the Red Line train towards Tamsui, stop at Yuanshan station (NT$40). Heading to the north of Yuanshan station, there will be a bus ticket counter.

Take the Kuo-Kuang Bus 1877 (NT$100) to Yilan. The last bus stop is Wushigang Visitor Center, you can get off here and walk about 600m to reach the museum or stop 1 station before, it’s closer to the museum.

Lanyang Museum Architecture

The museum is inherently a beautiful work of architecture, designed by the group of architects Kris Yao, making just looking at the museum even from the outside is also enough for us to admire, owning an impressive and modern architecture, harmony with surrounding natural environment and landscapes. Lanyang’s inclined design is inspired by the steep cliffs of the Beiguan coast that are characteristic of Yilan county. The roof of the museum has a slope of 20 degrees and the steel-glass walls rise up with a slope of 70 degrees to create a special shape. Lanyang Museum overlooks the lake and the surrounding fields of reeds create a magical harmony of nature and people.

There are two directions for you to admire this proud work of Yilan are from Wushigang Visitor Center or right in front of the museum gate. But for good pictures, you should across the lake at the opposite direction of Wushigang.

Inside the Lanyang museum

Lanyang Museum consists of 4 floors, including 3 floors of permanent exhibits and the ground floor displays exhibitions that change according to the theme. Before entering the exhibition area, I took a lunch break at the restaurant and cafe area of ​​the museum, the scene of the cafe was blended with the architecture that made this place make the most of natural light.

Lanyang Museum has a ticket price of only NT$100 ($3.59), if you want to rent a voice audio guide device, you can rent it for an additional NT$100 with only 3 languages ​​are Mandarin, English and Japanese. If you want to save money, you can still go inside to see the information on the wall in English. I have rented this device, it was quite simple to use. In the exhibition areas, there are codes, you enter that code into the device and press PLAY, it will explain that area to you.

The permanent exhibition area is a place to recreate the culture, people and nature of Yilan county, including 4 sections: The birth of Yilan, Mountains, Plains, and Oceans. When I saw the weather section, I realized that Yilan is a province with a lot of rain all year round, so I wondered why it rained right away when I came here.

My favorite area is definitely the sea…because Yilan is adjacent to the Pacific Ocean and has a long coastline that makes oceanography here always rich and diverse. And you can see the most well-groomed Ocean display area in the museum when there are countless specimens of fish species in Yilan. Fishing is the county’s most popular activity thanks to the Kuroshio black current (Japan Current) that flows through it, bringing in a wealth of nutrients and marine life.

After more than an hour of visiting, it was enough to understand and know more about a county of Taiwan. I was quite satisfied after a long day and surely the Lanyang museum is well worth a visit.

Further information

Address：No. 750, Sec. 3, Qingyun Rd., Toucheng Township, Yilan County
Hours: 9AM – 5PM (ticket sales: 9AM – 4:30PM)
TEL：+886-3-977-9700
Admission: NT$100/Group of 20 or more: NT$80
URL: https://www.lym.gov.tw/en/

Some best day tours, trips, activities and transfer services, tickets in and from Yilan and Taipei you can refer to

• Private Yilan Popular Sightseeing Car Charter from Taipei
• Shared Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Transfers (TPE) for Yilan
• Kavalan Whisky Blending and Tasting
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• 4G Portable WiFi for Taiwan from WiFiBB (Unlimited Data)
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• [Sale – Taiwan Food Promo] Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) Discounted Ticket from Taipei
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Read more Yilan travel guide here and Taiwan travel guide here.