East Asia 2018, Day 4: Taichung

After 3 days in and around Taipei, it was time for the 1st day trip of my trip to East Asia. My destination was Taichung, a major Taiwanese city on the west coast of the island. I had read that Taichung was Taiwan’s city of culture. I think this is largely due to the number of museums there. But don’t worry. I only went to 1!

Taichung Prefectural Hall, built in 1913 by the Japanese when Taiwan was a Japanese colony. (You’ll recall that Japan won Taiwan when it defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese War.)

So, Taiwan, Taipei, and now Taichung? What’s going on? In the 17th century, the Dutch set up a port in southern Taiwan at a place called Tayouan. Because of the importance of the port, people started referring to the entire island by that name, which eventually became standardized as “Taiwan”. (I remember Taiwan being called Formosa. The island received this name from the Portuguese in the 16th century, who called it a beautiful, or “formosa”, island.)

I was sort of disappointed to learn that Taipei is just short for “Taiwan Northern”. Do you remember how Beijing used to be Peking? “Beijing” is standardized Mandarin for “Northern Capital”. “Peking” was more of a Cantonese thing, but meant the same thing. Well they haven’t really standardized Chinese in Taiwan the way they have in China. So in standardized Mandarin, Taipei could be Taibei, sort of like Peking became Beijing. Well, Taichung is just short for “Taiwan Central”. Do you remember how China is sometimes called the Middle Kingdom because that’s a loose translate of Zhongguo, the Chinese name for China? Well in standard Mandarin, Taichung could be Taizhong. (And the place in southern Taiwan where the Dutch set up shop? Sure enough, that’s Tainan. If you remember that Nanjing was China’s “Southern Capital”, you might be able to guess what Tainan is short for.)

Painted Animation Lane

After arriving my train in Taichung, my 1st stop after swinging past Taichung Prefectural Hall was Painted Animation Lane to the west. You probably know that many East Asian cultures are gaga for animated characters. (Hello Kitty, anyone?) That love of characters of the comics is memorialized at Painted Animation Lane in Taichung.

Some sports heroes in Painted Animation Lane.

Painted Animation Lane meets Looney Tunes!

National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

After Painted Animation Lane, I kept walking. I was able to see just about everything I wanted to see in Taichung on foot, making sort of a square around the city. The next stop was the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. It’s one of the major cultural institutions in Taichung, and you can tell by the name it’s Taiwan’s premier art museum.

*Yun-Yung (The Cloud that Owns the Sky)*, 1994, by local artist Wang Ching-tai.

National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts is quite large. I didn’t go in. But I got to see plenty of art in the outdoor sculpture garden.

A restful piece outside National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.

This nearby hotel is a bit of a work of art itself.

Calligraphy Greenway

*Dance with the Music in the Spring Breeze*, 1994, by Jou Yi-Shiung.

Now here’s something that makes Taichung really cool. The Calligraphy Greenway is a longitudinal park loaded with artwork. It’s a very pleasant walk linking National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts with another major cultural institution, the National Museum of Natural Science, to the north. The Fine Arts Museum administers the artwork along Calligraphy Greenway.

*Legend*, 2013, by Kuo Kuo Hsiang. Dinosaurs in stainless steel. (By the way, more dinosaurs ahead!)

Calligraphy Greenway’s *French Bulldog*.

By the way, Calligraphy Greenway is named for flowing Chinese script.

Along Calligraphy Greenway, I stumbled upon a temple with stunning décor.

Seriously, I saw nothing like this in China. A total wow! I actually have read now that as I suspected, Taiwanese temple decor is based on traditions of southern China, as Taiwan’s original Chinese settlers mostly came from southern China. So I wouldn’t have seen it on my trip to East China and North China.

National Museum of Natural Science

The National Museum of Natural Science was the only museum I went to in Taichung. To be honest, I wasn’t totally impressed with it (other than the dinosaur exhibits). But I think I got some interesting pictures for you anyway. I’m always thinking of you!

At the National Museum of Natural Science, frogs need love too!

I have to be honest with you, this animatronic (and loud) T. Rex was a little scary.

Not sure what’s going on here, but it looks like something from a 1950s sci-fi movie.

Although it’s by name a natural science museum, it also has exhibits on human culture, particularly the indigenous cultures of Taiwan. Like Europeans did to the New World, the Chinese completely colonized Taiwan. Indigenous people only make up 2% of the population. The country is making efforts to recognize the island’s indigenous cultures.

Symbolically decorated boat of one of Taiwan’s indigenous groups.

Beautiful necklace of one of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.

At 1st glance, this looks like a nice piece of traditional Chinese art.

A closer inspection reveals that it’s a gory depiction of the Ten Courts of Hell. Walking through the exhibit on the Ten Courts of Hell at Haw Par Villa was one of the highlights of my 2012 visit to Singapore.

Depiction of a traditional Chinese medicinal drugstore.

Unusual exhibit on moxibustion, a traditional Chinese medicinal therapy where dried mugwort is burned on certain parts of the body. Ouch!

What’s a natural science museum without dioramas?

Some dioramas are more violent than others.

Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse

The National Museum of Natural Science has a nice Botanical Garden. Without question, its most prominent feature is the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse. It’s definitely one of the best features of the entire museum.

Inside the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse at the National Museum of Natural Science.

A beautiful orchid in the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse at the National Museum of Natural Science.

Waterfall inside the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse.

There’s even a large aquarium in the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse.

Amazonian catfish or some such in the aquarium in the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse.

Yude Road

From the National Museum of Natural History, I headed east to continue my somewhat square tour around Taichung. To make for a pleasant walk, I picked a road that had a park-like strip along the center–somewhat like the Calligraphy Greenway, but narrower. What I didn’t expect to find was orchids growing from trees on the way along the Yude Road median. I haven’t been able to find out much about this feature, but it made for a delightful walk.

Paochueh Temple

Paochueh Temple is a fine Buddhist temple in Taichung. But whatever else in traditional Buddhism is going on at the temple, there’s one thing that everybody comes to see.

Everybody loves the 7-story-tall Buddha outside Paochueh Temple.

Taichung Park

Across the street from Paochueh Temple, I grabbed a bus to head south, giving my feet a rest for the 1st time since arriving in Taichung. I was off to the last attraction of my day–Taichung Park. Taichung Park is a small, peaceful park in the center of the city. It was built by the Japanese in the beginning of the 20th century during their period of rule over Taiwan.

A new friend came out to greet me in Taichung Park.

I’ll have to come back to Taichung some time and relax at the Taichung Park Pavilion.

It was an easy walk from Taichung Park to the train station. Taichung reminded me of Tianjin a bit, or even San Jose, in that isn’t wasn’t the most exciting place I’d been to. But you can see that I had quite a lovely day there nonetheless. On the other hand, brace yourself for the spectacular sights Day 5 holds in store.

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]