Central Taiwan
Discover Central Taiwan
Introduction
Central Taiwan is where the island’s western plain meets its mountains, and the transition happens fast: from flat farmland to peaks above three thousand metres within about fifty kilometres.
Taichung, the regional city, has the mildest weather on the island and a strong cafe and design culture. Just inland is Sun Moon Lake, the largest body of fresh water in Taiwan, sitting at seven hundred and fifty metres in Thao indigenous territory, with a cycle path around part of its shore and temples on the hills above. Puli, nearby, is the geographic centre of the island.
Above that the roads climb seriously. The Central Cross-Island Highway and the route over Hehuanshan reach above three thousand metres — snow in winter, which surprises people about a subtropical island — and give access to the high-mountain tea of Lishan and to the ridge walks of the Central Range. Alishan, further south, is the famous one: a narrow-gauge forest railway built by the Japanese to take out cypress, and a sunrise above a cloud sea that people get up at four in the morning for. Down on the plain, Lukang keeps one of the best-preserved Qing-era streets in Taiwan, and the Gaomei wetlands west of Taichung are worth an evening.