Taichung

Getting from Taipei to Taichung was a fairly easy process, involving about 15 pounds and a high speed train.

Because the day in the city was technically on my own dime, rather than work’s, I had booked myself a very cheap little hotel that was a bit out of the way.

In actuality, everything is ‘a bit out of the way’ in Taichung, because the city has a high speed station that connects it to the outside world (where I came in) as well as a Main Station…. but these are quite far apart. There’s is a metro, but it’s currently a single line, that runs from the high speed station in a large semi-circle around the city and doesn’t go anywhere near the Main Station (situated somewhere near the centre point of that circle.

All of which is to say, I took a bus.

Which I consider to be a step up in ‘foreign country difficulty’ compared to metros or trains, because the info is often a bit less clearly signposted, there tends to be different etiquette for getting on and off (do I tag in, do I tag out?), ticketing is generally less clear or modern, and actual announcement of the stops ranges from ‘doesn’t happen’ (hiya Perth) to ‘you might hear it but not recognise it for the place you want to be’ (big shoutout to Paris for this one).

Anyway. It was all pretty fine. I was a bit distracted and missed my stop, but I think we can all agree that it was less ‘missed’ and more ‘was swerved by the great forces of the heavens to a better stop’:

Even from the bus, it was another 15 or so minutes walk, and a whole lot of sweating, before I got to my hotel. And once I got there, it was a bit of a faff to work out exactly how to get into the building

But soon enough I was settled and headed back on my way out, to explore the city.

Overall, suburban Taichung gave me slight Japan vibes, and really appealed to me.

I only had about 24 hours in the city, so aimed to hit up the key attractions. Which of course involved a makers market:

I did pause on the way to check out a weird little sex-toy ATM, which taught me that a) you need to be age checked to buy things there (fair enough), and b) apparently you don’t get to have fun toys when pregnant (is that a thing??).

Anway,

The market was quite charming, and although I only really bought a couple of postcards, I did end up meeting a very cool (and photogenic) cat!

He seemed to be enjoying his rockstar life, which came complete with a mini fan and boombox.

From the markets I wandered on a bit, passed some really cool trees, nice buildings, and what I’m fairly certain was a Tasmanian Tiger…

My destination was Comics Alley, which, as the name suggests, featured a bunch of colourful and (at least in some cases?) familiar faces.

I kept on with my wandering, and happened to stumble across another mini market, complete with a woman playing and singing underneath one of the most impressive trees I’ve ever seen.

Taichung has such a weird but lovely vibe that I found completely charming. For the most parts- at least where I was roaming- there didn’t always seem to be much deliberate pedestrian infrastructure, which meant I was sometimes walking along the road. But there was something fairly laid back about it all, which felt unrushed and undangerous as a result.

At one point, I walked past this incredible looking bakery, which I was attracted to simply because of the crab.

I siddled on up, and saw these little bread cakes being warmed. Despite my lack of language skills, everyone was incredibly friendly and willing to chat with me and stay hallo and when I seemed interested and asked what the food was, they could point to the english details of what the little breads were.

Overall, it just felt very very welcoming, to the point that I was very soon messaging my friend with ‘let’s move to Taichung ok?’

Anyway, what I ended up with was a soft savoury bread with spring onion or chives integrated, and a slightly stiffer sweet one that came with a black sesame seed filling.

I was walking in towards Chun Shui Tang in the West District of Taichung. Taiwan itself is famous for being the birthplace of bubble tea, but within Taiwan there is Taichung, and within Taichung there is Chun Shui Tang.

(Obviously, as with all origin stories, there is a historical rivalry, in which another shop in Tainan also claims to be the OG bubble tea inventors. But I didn’t visit Tainan this time around, so I’m team Chun Shui Tang all the way).

I went with the original milk tea, and found it quite delightful. The pearls were definitely smaller and chewier (rather than more frog-spawny), than what we normally get commercially.

But Chun Shui Tang was just a very short pitstop on my way towards the city Main Station and the real centre of town.

I walked along the towards the ‘Taichung Green Corridor’ which is a converted disused railway section. I’m not sure how clearly it comes out in the photos, but I really loved the the vibes of the city in the way the new and deliberate mixed in with the older and more utalitarian.

I did also meet a bird. Which at this late stage of my life, is a very important thing to document:

It turned out that the corridor included not just real (but stationary) big trains, but also had some little mini ones for kids. And also a whole market with a very trainy feel!

(^Those are market stalls inside the train carriages!)

My next and one-of-the-most-important stops of the journey, was Miyahara.

The original and incredibly beautiful building was built by an opthamologist Miyahara Takeo in 1927, and was then converted into the Taichung Health Bureau after the second world war. Over time, the building sunk into too much disrepair for public use, but Luckily, a pineapple cake company acquired the building, preserving it and transforming it into something that’s a mixture of Fortnum and Masons and Magic.

You can also see little hints at the building’s history throughout.

(If I had more luggage I ABSOLUTELY would have bought these beautiful nut chocolates)

Things in the shop are very pricey, but still not insane compared to UK standards. In the end, I spent some time browsing but didn’t buy anything.

Mostly because my main destination was the icecream!

Now I realise this isn’t the most aesthetic of shots, but I wanted to share just how amazing these flavours all seem:

The tea section alone completely blew my mind. But having seven different chocolate flavours with unique characteristics, as well as a whole bunch of ‘specialty’ flavours meant that I was at a loss to limit my selection down to an edible amount.

This is the kind of situation where it helps to have friends. Or at the very least, close acquaintances with the capacity for ridiculously high icecream consumption capacities.

I ended up going for “Mont Blanc Chestnut and Ruby Black Tea”, as well as the “Ugandan Smoked Chocolate”. I also went for the ‘sundae’ option, which gives a whole fancy additions including getting to choose from a range of sweets (pineapple cakes for me!). It also comes with an extra mini scoop of the house flavour (which I think is milk tea?), which I didn’t realise until I ‘undressed’ my icecream.

I think this came out at around six pounds or so, which, given that I recently spent TWELVE POUNDS (yes yes I know, icecream is the avo toast of my generation and it is my own fault I don’t have a house) on three scoops of icecream in London, is pretty friggin’ reasonable.

Anyway, it’s worth noting that I didn’t manage to eat all of the cakes and things immediately, but that I DO always travel with a tupperware box.

So the little cakes and biscuits came home with me for later.

Once I was more-than-filled with icecream, I headed onwards. First through Taichung park….

.. which had this goat that reminded me of the Gaevle goat and was therefore begging to be burnt.

I was soon back in a more shopping-y district, and spent some time browsing.

I did try on a few different bottoms- obviously polka dots are always a win in my head, and I was curious about the very large wide styled pants that seemed to be popular.

In the end, nothing really worked– those ones on the far right are cool but had a VERY bizzare waist situation which made me leave them behind.

After a bit more wandering around, I found myself at the stage of exhaustion, and decided to sit on a bus for a bit.

At this stage, I was pretty close to home, and found I wandered myself up a hunger.

I decided to finally try some of the Stinky Tofu, which is pretty famous in the region. If you go to a night market anywhere in Taiwan and think ‘hmm I wonder what that smell is’, it’s probably the Tofu.

I’m pretty open to eating most things, and with the exception of Dill that Has Been Handled by Germans Specifically (they like to drown fish in it, and have at least once used it to wrap sushi), am pretty ok with most foods.

This. Was. Horrible.

Which sure, is a subjective opinion.

But I have very rarely been so incapable of eating something. I managed less than half of a piece, even after trying to psych myself up, do some deep breathing (not in the direction of the tofu), and making a second post-cabbage attempt.

The best way I can describe it is ‘the juice that comes out the bottom of the compost bin’.

Sorry Tofu. I really tried. And I really felt embarrassed at not being able to eat it and ended up sort of slinking out of the restaurant in a hurried fashion.