Where to go in Taichung? — 16 must go, top places to visit in Taichung & best places to visit in Taichung

Taichung is the 3rd largest city in Taiwan after Taipei and Kaohsiung. Taichung is located in the middle of the country, about 2 hours from Taipei by car. Taichung brings beauty to the harmony between traditional beauty and modern. Along with the capital of Taipei and the coastal city of Kaohsiung, Taichung is currently a hot destination that attracts many visitors around the world. So, where to go in Taichung? Let’s check it out our suggestion top places to visit in Taichung including best places to visit in Taichung (Taichung best places to visit), must go places in Taichung, must visit places in Taichung to find out the answer!

Taichung is a big city of Taiwan, despite strong development with modern architectural works but It still preserving and protecting the natural environment quite well. Visiting the beautiful landscapes of Taichung will be an exciting discovery journey in Taiwan tour that you should not miss.

In addition to the modern Taipei capital, Taichung city is also known as a tourist destination with many beautiful naturual landscapes such as Sun Moon Lake, Gaomei Wetlands, sacred pilgrimage sites and unforgettable romantic landmarks. The place blends the beauty of traditional beauty, and the romance with a bit modern. And these top tourist attractions in Taichung promise to bring you a journey of exploration and discovery that is new and memorable.

Best places to visit in Taichung: Sun Moon Lake

Starting the series “Where to go in Taichung”, I introduce to you the first place is Sun Moon Lake. Sun Moon Lake is a natural freshwater lake located in Yuchi town, Nantou district. The lake is located at an altitude of 748 meters above sea level. This is the largest natural lake in Taiwan

Referring to the beautiful scenery of Taichung, can not help but the Sun Moon Lake, what makes the special feature is that the shape of the lake, in the East is the lake as round as the sun and the West is like the crescent moon that makes anyone come here does not want to leave. Therefore, the name of the lake comes from this special shape.

Sun Moon Lake is always on the bucket list of any visitor when coming to Taichung, one of the best places to visit in Taichung (Taichung best places to visit) top places to visit in Taichung, and one of the must visit places in Taichung. With the charming beauty, surrounded by majestic mountains, in the distance are floating clouds reflex their shadow on the surface of the lake, along with the bold Chinese architecture makes Sun Moon Lake is like the fairy land, so captivating, making anyone never forget after visited.

We recommend you should spending a whole day to visit Sun Moon Lake. Coming to the lake, you will be absolutely overwhelmed by the majestic mountains. Sun Moon Lake has a very romantic cycling route around it. This route used to be in the top 10 most beautiful cycling routes in the world voted by CNN Travel. Bike rental is about TWD 200 ($6.45) for 2 hours of cycling.

Sailing cruise on the lake is also an interesting experience. Sitting on a boat and enjoying the charming beauty of the lake and majestic mountains surrounds. There are 3 boat piers. The first pier is Shuishe, the second one is syuangguang and the last is Yidashao.

Get off the 2nd pier is the famous Syuanguang Temple. At the foot of the temple is Jinpan Madame Shop selling delicious tea eggs The small cute hot eggs has a strange taste but very attractive! Come here, do not forget to try this strange snack.

We have a detailed review of the itinerary for visiting Sun Moon Lake and Cingjing Farm for one day, please read here: Sun Moon Lake itinerary — Exploring Sun Moon Lake & Cingjing Farm for 1 day trip.

How to get to Sun Moon Lake?

Sun Moon Lake is about 65 km from Taichung city. I will show you 2 ways to getting to this lake as follow.

Nantou Bus

You go to Nantou Bus Station in Taichung to buy a ticket to get to Sun Moon Lake.

The bus tickets from Taichung to Sun Moon Lake is TWD 195 ($6.29)/one way, TWD 360 ($11.61)/round trip. There are many trips a day. Please refer to the following schedule to make your plan.

Shuttle bus

If you go in groups of 3-8 people, I feel comfortable and most active is to hire a private car (shuttle bus) to take the whole group. The cost for each trip is not too expensive, but the group can still travel comfortably. The driver will pick up your group at the hotel too! You can book this service via travel agencies such as: KKDay, Klook or Trazy.

Must go places in Taichung: Gaomei Wetlands

The second destination in the series “Where to go in Taichung?” that I want to introduce is Gaomei Wetlands. Stunning placet for devotees who love the art of nature here. Gaomei Wetlands is the place where we can watch the whole super beautiful sunset in Taichung. One of the must go places in Taichung you definitely should not miss.

This wetland is very wide, with a wooden path across the sandbank to the sea. At high tide, standing on the wooden road you feel like your foot touch the sea. In the distance are the giant wind turbines. Gaomei Wetlands is the most beautiful at the sunset, so this is the most crowded time.

You need to refer the time before sunset on the phone and watch the time to get here. Not every day the sunset at the same time. Once there, you should find and choose for yourself the most photogenic spot first. The best moment of sunset lasts only 10-15 minutes, so try to capture and take really spectacular photos!

Year built: September 29, 2005
Location: Qingshui, Taichung, Taiwan

Taichung best places to visit: Rainbow Village

Looking at the pictures below, you have seen this village is full of special, right? Actually called the Rainbow Village but now only a few houses are decorated with colorful patterns like this.

The unique, colorful backgrounds here are the perfect setting for your ‘virtual life’ photos. You will not be surprised when know the current owner of these paintings still continuing his creative work and therefore every come, visitors will feel excited when discovering the new interesting drawings.

Do you know why these houses have special patterns like this? The true story of the origin of the Rainbow Village tells the story of the old man Huang who personally painted, and decorated the village himself. The village wearing a new beautiful dress not only makes the villagers admire but according to the good rumors, many people from other places also come here to admire. The government has decided to preserve this special village and build some more works in 2010. Rainbow Village is getting more and more famous.

Address: No.56, Chun’an Road, Taichung 408, Taiwan
Hours: 8AM–6PM
Phone: +886 4 2380 2351

Top places to visit in Taichung: Taichung Metropolitan Opera House (National Taichung Theater)

If Australia is famous for the Sydney Opera House with oyster shells architecture; Singapore with the Esplanade Theater by the Marina Bay with durian fruit architecture, then in Taiwan with the Taichung Metropolitan Opera House. The theater is a pride of Taiwanese people in general as well as Taichung in particular.

Taichung Metropolitan Opera House is covered on an area of 60,000m2. The theater was built in an open architecture, designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito. Seen from the outside the theater is a massive building. The outer wall impresses visitors with its long, winding strips adorn with holes, very eye-catching. One great thing is the entire building does not use air conditioning to cool. The water circulation system is used during the operation to cool the theater. Extremely environmentally friendly!

Address: No.101, Section 2, Huilai Road, Taichung 101, Taiwan
Opened: November 23, 2014
Capacity: 2,014 (grand theater)
Phone: +886 4 2251 1777

Where to go in Taichung? Fengjia Night Market (Feng Chia Night Market)

When street lights up is also the time we dress up to go to night market! Night market is a very beautiful traditional culture of Taiwanese people for generations. Taichung has many different large and small night markets and the Feng Chia Night Market is the largest market. There are up to 15,000 stalls here. Is it a lot? Surprise? Wherever you go shopping in Taichung, you must go to Fengjia Night Market at least once.

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