Taichung

Cruise ships berth in an industrial area, so use taxis or transport supplied by the ship.

Cruise schedule for thHotels at this port.

Taichung City is Taiwan Province’s third biggest city and a middle-of-the-province centre of economy, communication and culture. In the western part of Taiwan Island, at the centre of the Taichung Basin, it was established under the Qing Dynasty in 1886, the 12th year of Emperor Guangxu's reign, and was once Taiwan’s provincial capital.

Taichung City’s terrain is high in the north and low in the south. Its western side faces the sea but is screened by mountains, so it is rarely struck by typhoons. Known as Taiwan’s cleanest city, it has neat, quiet and tastefully laid-out streets and roads. Zhongshan Park, Baojue Temple and Confucian Temple are city tourist centres and Taiwan’s Buddhist cultural centre, where Buddhist dharma gatherings have been held over the years. Long known as a cultural city, Taichung has many colleges and universities of higher education which…

The Parkway is a narrow green corridor forming a pleasant south/north parkway between the Museum of Fine Arts and National Museum of Natural Science, crossed by the main Taizhonggang Rd. Spend minutes or hours walking it, or relax in one of its parks.

At its southern end, the Art Museum has Modern and Traditional exhibits, a third-floor cafe and a garden area especially popular with families at weekends. The Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau links to the museum and includes a large reading room among other facilities.

Behind the Science Museum at the Parkway’s north end is a botanical garden with interesting trees and plants, and a few dinosaurs hidden among them. Climb its small hill to hear birds singing. Early in the morning, some Taichung residents practise Tai Chi and other exercises outside the Museum. Past the garden, a cycle track and path continue through a more residential area, where locals carefully tend the gardens and roses perfume the evening.

On either side are cafe's, restaurants and a 24 hour optician. Continue west along the path past the university hospital to Zhongsheng Park, another pleasant spot with an open-air swimming pool, old style benches and a foot massage path.

North of Zhongzheng Park and across the river stands Baojiue Temple. South of the park are Yizhong Street, Confucius Temple, Martyrs Shrine, Chungyo department store, Taichung Gym and Taichung Park.

The compact downtown is easy enough to cover on foot, but many shop owners use the pavement outside their businesses. This can make walking an ordeal, as you may have to dodge traffic while forced onto the street.

Check that guide-book maps include "english" as well as "chinese" characters, allowing you and the cabdriver to point at the map to communicate. Cabdrivers speak only chinese.

Taichung’s central Taiwan location makes trips to Taipei and Kaohsiung convenient. Frequent, comfortable, inexpensive freeway buses serve both routes. By bus or train, either journey takes around 3 hours, or as little as 1.5 hours in optimal traffic.

Like much of Asia, Taiwan treats night markets as a mainstay of entertainment, shopping and eating. These open-air markets generally occupy a street or alleyway, with vendors selling all kinds of wares on every side.

Taiwan uses the New Taiwan Dollar (NTD, also called TWD). As a quick guide, NT$100 is roughly US$3, and ATM's are plentiful.

Credit cards are accepted by most hotels and department stores, but not by most restaurants and small stores.

English is spoken only sporadically.

Cafes with free customer WiFi are plentiful, though you may need to wander before locating one. In Taiwan, these free-WiFi cafes should instead be called gaming cafes.

Stores seem to have no set opening hours, remaining open for as long as customers are present. During Chinese New Year, 6 days long, Taiwanese people travel and transportation can become very hectic.