"Taichung City- a funny place I live in " a T'ai-chung Travel Page by matt_of_asia

Taichung is a funny place, located in the center of Taiwan. It can take credit for the invention of Bubble Milk tea. Its sweetened tea with prodigious amounts of cream added and little balls of glutinous flour at the bottom. Its actually quite good.

Taichung has a fantastic pub scene to explore, as well as Tea Houses and many international style restaurants. If you can think of any particular country's food, you have a good chance you can find it here. (or at least a Taiwanized version of it!)

It is a good place to live as the weather is generally sunny or cloudy all year. Typhoons that swamp the rest of Taiwan usually get redirected by the mountains to avoid Taichung. The ocean is nearby and good views of the ocean and some coastal hikes can be done along the dykes. Few beaches are convienient currently, they exist but services are few and the water is not exactly clean.

There are some quite good mountain retreats nearby, the hot spring resorts in Da-Ken nearby offer some respite from the urban jungle, if you care to drive a bit or bus around the island it is a good central location to hang out in.

Taichung does offer the islands largest urban park, in the metropolitan park.
On Wuchuan 4th Street (art street) offers the best in competitive restaurant culture, near the Art Museum.
The art museum itself offers a good evening hike on its grounds within the city and if you care to go in, some interesting exhibits of modern taiwanese art. (Dont expect Leonardo-esqe genius.) its free.
The science museum is worth a visit and is a good convienient escape within the city. (20Nt)
Near the train station is Taichung Park, which is a nice walking place on weekends. Boat rides exist.
The canal district in the center offers a good strip of green walkway with many restaurants along it.
Malls and department stores abound, Primarily Sogo, Mitsukoshi, Tiger city, Jung-yo and others.
Technology / gadget geeks can catch up on the latest gadgets and possibly some bargains in the electronic markets at Nova.

Taichung county is MASSIVE (in taiwanese reference terms) and has many fun places to explore and visit.
Waterpark freaks can drive to Houli and play in Mal-la-Wan waterpark, or visit the amusement park next to it- Tan-Suo-Le-Yuan (Discovery Amusement Park)
-hot Spring freaks can choose from nearby places such as Da-keng or drive out to Gu-Guan.
-you can visit the large beaches/sand bars in Da-Ahn and body surf the upon the tiny waves, and chase small crabs with your Taiwanese friends.
-you can hike ba-shian-shan near Gu-Guan.
-you can go mushroom picking in Shin-She near Tian-Leng.
-you can discover the amazing scenery up in the mountains near the Li-Shan mountain farm area, if you can tolerate the difficult roads and have a local along to help you find it. Fu-Shou-San and WuLing Farm are some famous areas technically within Taichung County. (I say technically because you must go through Nantou to arrive there- its a long 5-6 hour drive)

-or you can just rent a scooter and cruise around and discover your own sites!