Explore Central Taiwan
Sprawled over the flat coastal plains west of the mountains, TAICHUNG (台中; táizhōng) is Taiwan’s third-largest city, the unofficial capital of central Taiwan and an important transport hub for the region. It’s also regarded as the country’s most attractive place to live: the climate is drier, the air less polluted, housing cheaper, and the streets greener and less crowded than Taipei or Kaohsiung. Taiwanese tea culture is particularly developed here; the city’s appealing mix of elegant classical teahouses and stylish contemporary cafés are the perfect setting for a varied range of teas. Taichung’s old centre still contains attractive remnants of its Japanese colonial past and a smattering of unusual temples, while in the modern western half of the city, I.M. Pei’s Luce Memorial Chapel is a striking piece of modern architecture and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts is a world-class contemporary art gallery. Beyond the suburbs, the chief attractions are Dajia and its famous Mazu Pilgrimage, and the 921 Earthquake Museum.
Brief history
Taichung traces its origins to a military post and village known as Datun, established in 1733 on the site of today’s Taichung Park, but the modern city is an amalgam of several places, explaining why its oldest buildings and temples appear to be scattered all over the city – the western district of Nantun grew up around another army camp, founded in 1721 on the site of a farm that was built sixteen years earlier, and was absorbed by Taichung in 1950. Datun was briefly the capital of Taiwan after the island became a province of China in 1885, but local infrastructure was poor and Taipei, which was provisional capital, assumed the official role in 1894. After the Japanese occupied Taiwan in 1895 the city’s name was changed to Taichung, or “Central Taiwan” and development began in earnest, with Englishman William Barton hired to design the new road layout for the city. The economy boomed in the 1970s and 1980s, with manufacturing and particularly shoe making leading the way, and by the 1990s the commercial centre of the city had drifted west towards Taichung Port (Taiwan’s third largest). The city’s population topped the million mark in 2003 (the current population of the metropolitan area is around 2.3 million).
Read More-
The 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan
The 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan
Located near the small town of Wufeng (霧峰; wùfēng) in the village of Kengkou (坑口; kēngkǒu), roughly 14km south of Taichung train station, the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan (九二一地震教育園區; jiǔèryī dìzhèn jiàoyùyuánqū) is a vivid, if sobering, introduction to the damage and destruction wrought by the massive earthquake of 1999, particularly in this part of the country. Though it has attracted a fair amount of criticism from people who say it ignores the controversial aspects of the 921 earthquake (such as substandard construction), it’s extremely informative and very moving.
The museum is centred on the former site of Guangfu Junior High School – most of the school collapsed during the quake and pictures of its mangled running track were some of the most visually shocking images in the days afterwards (it was mercifully empty at the time). The ruined school buildings form the outdoor area of the museum; on both sides of this are two futuristic exhibition halls packed with interactive displays labelled in English and Chinese; the Chelungpu Fault Gallery, which crosses the actual fault line – a clearly visible ridge created by the quake that cuts across the running track; and the Earthquake Image Gallery featuring a selection of audio-visual images of the quake and its aftermath, climaxing in hourly shows in a huge theatre.
-
The 921 Earthquake
The 921 Earthquake
All over Taiwan, but particularly in the central part of the country, you’ll hear about the 921 Earthquake (九二一大地震; jiŭèryī dàdìzhèn): the epithet refers to the 7.3-magnitude quake that ripped across the island at 1.47am on September 21, 1999, killing 2455 people, injuring more than 8000 and destroying 50,652 buildings. It’s also known as the Chi-Chi Earthquake – the epicentre was beneath the town of Jiji, 12.5km west of Sun Moon Lake. In fact, many of the casualties in Nantou county occurred during an aftershock five days later that measured 6.7 on the Richter scale, flattening buildings weakened on September 21.
Despite the heroic efforts of rescue services in the days after the disaster, the government was criticized in some places for its slow response. Though it established the 921 Earthquake Post-disaster Recovery Commission to oversee around NT$106bn in funding to help affected areas, many building contractors responsible for illegal construction – blamed for many of the deaths – have never been prosecuted.
Earthquakes are a problem in Taiwan because the island sits on a fault line between the Eurasian and Philippine tectonic plates, causing almost constant seismic activity, though 75 percent of all quakes occur in the sparsely populated eastern half of the island. When western Taiwan is affected, the results can be catastrophic, though most buildings today can easily absorb all but the strongest tremors.
