This post was written in mid-July, 2017 during our month long visit to Taiwan with Taichung as the base.
It’s been about 10 days in Taichung, a big small city in Central Taiwan closer to the West coast. Taichung is an industrial not-so-interesting city in most guide books but for an Indian eye, this is a beautiful city. Large clean roads, polite people, high technology but an apparent lack of show off; Taichung is a wonderful change in perspective. There are hundreds of options for food- from amazing street food to the best of high end hotels, Taichung has something for everyone, which is probably an inherent characteristic of a city.
140km from the country capital Taipei, Taichung is going to be home for a month and we’ll be exploring the country from here. Before landing, some research on the internet left me hungry for information in english (which is rare in this age). Probably a good thing but such is our mind, it needs more and more fodder. Hence, this thought of penning down this journal about our travels in Taiwan. I’ll begin with some initial observations from this place which you can also consider as a list of things to do in Taichung?
Amazing sensibilities
Good design is a turn on. And there’s plenty of that here. Plenty! There’s a genuine care for the way things should be, the way things would make life easier- I don’t want to use that word or even convenience- it’s something larger, a sense of care. For instance, construction sites. There’s no dust on construction sites! And on the barricades outside, they plant saplings! You can probably take a nap and breathe well just outside a construction site.
Then take the instance of a road accident. People don’t come out and have fights and create a ruckus. If there’s a misunderstanding, the parties involved in the accident leave their vehicles there and are taken care of. The police is called who then study the site, look at the video footage and come up with a verdict. And there’s no shouting in this process.
And this pervades in every thing. Even stores- look at the book covers and one special store called Muji (which I later came to know is a giant company now). My friend tells me that all the design sense is inherited from Japan. Maybe, but kudos to Taiwan for carrying it so gracefully.
Cycling culture
Physical activities are such a key when it comes to a city. And to get a taste of this in Taichung, head to Houli for a beatiful 17km one way cycling track whoch meanders through greenery, tunnels and over rivers. You can stop midway for ice deserts or take a dip in the river or find your own quiet spots to rest and relax.
And if you’re looking for something that falls into the schedule of daily work life, there are cycle stands across the city from where you can swipe a card and pick up a cycle and drop of at any other stand in the city. There’s an app which will tell you the availability if cycles and locations of the stands. It’s an amazing way to travel, especially when the roads are so allowing.
Street Food
This place is a heaven for food lovers. The best way to sample food would be to head out to one of the night markets which start from 5pm and sample all the foods. If you’re a non-vegetarian, you’d have no problem but if you’re not, you’ll have a tough time recognizing food. But there still are ample options- some vegetarian places and quite a few vegan places have opened up in Taichung. If nothing, rice balls which stir fried vegetables or picking up a ready to eat from a 7–11 or a Family Mart is your best bet. Plus, the bakeries are just amazing, one can live on breads and cakes here. And ofcourse, top it of with the bubble tea. Apparently, Taichung is the birthplace of Bubble Tea. (which brings me to this blog called the Daily bubble Tea which has pretty good information in english).
One additional tech tip would be the Google Translate app which lets you click pictures of text and it comes up with a fairly good translation of the highlighted text. Mandarin is a tough language to decipher considering that the same symbol can mean different things in different contexts. But well, tech is getting there, the future is pretty close.
High tech but not dystopian
Another interesting thing we noticed that inspite of internet being omnipresent and technology being so advanced, people are not addicted to the screens as much as one would expect. The human element is very much alive. People are social, kind and very polite! And I hardly noticed a selfie being taken or maybe that’s because Taichung is not really a tourist destination. We’ll get more clarity on that in the next few weeks.
Social issues?
Coming from India, one of the biggest difference one notices is that things genuinely look sorted. There is ample water for everyone, poverty is very low (and this probably let’s more people to be happy), waste management is sorted, healthcare is good, the basic problems seem to be sorted- even the news channels are not filled with world-ending news. This might be relative and an outside observation but people seem to be a lot more relaxed about things and there aren’t taboos or strict social do’s and don’ts.
Apart from this, the internet is filled with lists of things to do in Taichung. But the best way to explore any place is ofcourse to come with time and walk around. This is when one sees the real place, the pace of regular life and well, life in general. Without much excitement.
From Taichung, we travelled to the East Coast of Taiwan for a week and it was marvellous! Here’s a short video about the journey:
