Klook’s Guide to Easy Rail Travel from Taipei to Taichung City

Aside from its capital Taipei, Taiwan has many gem cities worth exploring. One such example is Taichung City, located on the western coast of Taiwan and is easily accessible via the Taiwan High-Speed Rail (THSR).

Compared to Taipei, Taichung shows the more natural facet of Taiwan — here, you’ll find plenty of outdoor escapes and cultural experiences that you wouldn’t find in Taiwan’s bigger cities.

For Part III of our Taiwan rail travel guide, we’ll be giving you the lowdown on how to travel to Taichung and the best places to visit in Taichung, including food spots!

Taichung City is only an hour away via the Taiwan High-Speed Rail, so your dream Taichung vacation can start whenever you want! Just head to the Taipei Main Station and look for the THSR sign, before you take the train to THSR Taichung Station and begin your adventures in Taichung! 

It’s recommended to check the Taiwan High-Speed Rail schedule before your trip. Once you’ve decided on a schedule, you can book your Taiwan High-Speed Rail tickets here:

If you want to get more bang for your buck, check out the Klook guide on how to maximize your Taiwan High-Speed Rail and Taiwan Railway Pass.

THSR Taichung Station is located in Wuri District, a suburban district in Southern Taichung. Once you arrive, you can freely set off to explore, whether it’s within Taichung or on an excursion from Taichung Station directly. Two of Taiwan’s most beautiful areas, namely Sun Moon Lake and Cingjing, are easily accessible from Taichung Station, so make sure to check those out if you can spare the time.

Before you start planning your itinerary, learn more about the Taiwan High-Speed Rail here:

Surrounding Taiwan’s largest body of water, Sun Moon Lake scenic area is a world-renowned natural paradise with plenty to offer. Sun Moon Lake got its romantic name from the resemblance of its east side to the sun, and its west side to a crescent moon. It’s the only attraction in Taiwan that lets visitors fully appreciate nature’s beauty in the air, ground, and water. For cycling enthusiasts, try out the lake’s cycling trail, featured as one of CNN’s ten most breathtaking cycling trails in the world in 2012.

You can’t miss the opportunity to cruise around Sun Moon Lake when visiting this natural wonderland. Hop on a boat and admire the breathtaking scenery around the shimmering turquoise water. You can board the boat at either Shuishe Pier, Syuanguang Pier, or Ita Thao Pier, which all offer shuttle boat service.

Boat services usually run from 8:00 to 18:00, and each ride takes about 1.5 hours and costs NTD 300 for adults. If you’d rather just sit back and relax without having to book tickets yourself, however, try booking A Day at Sun Moon Lake tour, which already includes a cruise, a Chinese-speaking tour guide, and round trip transfers! English-speaking guides are also available at an extra charge.

You can also opt to get Sun Moon Lake Hop-On Hop-Off Boat tickets, so you can enjoy unlimited boat rides around the lake. This is ideal if you want to hop on and off at Shuishe Pier, Itashao Pier, and Xuan Guang Wharf to explore nearby sights on foot or by bike.

This seven-minute cable car ride from Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village to Ita Thao Settlement lets visitors appreciate the scenery from above and have a bird’s eye view of Sun Moon Lake’s curious shape.

The cable car service runs from 10:30 to 16:00. Tickets can be purchased directly on the Klook website.

Wenwu Temple is one of the most visited attractions in Sun Moon Lake. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese tore down two temples to make way for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. Later, they rebuilt a new one where Wenwu Temple is now. After World War II, when the government decided to develop tourism at Sun Moon Lake, the architecture was expanded and re-designed Chinese-palace style. Today, Wenwu Temple houses three separate halls dedicated to various Chinese gods.

Fun fact: At the bottom of Wenwu Temple is the Wenwu hiking trail. There are 366 ascending stairs denoting each day of the year. Each step has the names of celebrities carved on them, meant to correspond to their birthday.

Ci En Pagoda was built by President Chiang Kai-shek in memory of his mother. The pagoda is located on the 954-meter-high Shabalan Mountain. Spanning about 46 meters, the nine-story pagoda reaches 1,000 meters above sea level. Visitors are welcome to the highest level for a spectacular view of Sun Moon Lake.

Grandma Jinpan’s Tea Eggs is located at the first stop of the boat tour, Syuanguang Temple. Tea egg is an extremely popular Taiwanese snack, and Grandma Jinpan’s tea egg is said to be the signature food of Sun Moon Lake! You can smell the eggs once the boat arrives at the pier.

The restaurant conveniently lies opposite Zhongxing car park around Shuishe pier. Recommended by many locals, this family-run restaurant offers authentic food of the Ita Thao (the village of the Thao people) at a reasonable price. There is an English menu and English-speaking staff.

If you want a bit of greenery, Cinjing is the place to go. At Cingjing Farm, you can lie on the spacious grassland and enjoy the Taiwanese sunshine. Since the farm sits 1,750 meters above the sea, the weather is generally mild all year round, with an average temperature ranging from 15°C to 23°C. Sheep run around on the farm, and you can freely interact with them at a close distance.

Green Green Grasslands is the most beautiful area in Cingjing. Reaching 1,800 meters above sea level, this vast piece of green almost touches the blue sky. Visitors can walk along the strolling trails and feel the peace in nature. The weekend sheep shearing show is another reason why Green Green Grassland is an ideal getaway destination for both local and foreign tourists.

The Recreation Centre is the main shopping area in Cingjing, housing restaurants, cafés, snack shops, and kiosks. If you can spare some time, take it slow and enjoy a cup of coffee at one of the cafés after wandering in the grassland — that’s what a Cingjing-lifestyle is like. Try the fresh and juicy peach harvested locally at the market. It’s gonna delight your day.

Though the Cinjing Farm Guest House is technically an accommodation, they also have several food concessionaires, including Starbucks, MOS Burger, 7-Eleven, and small shops. There’s also a restaurant that serves mutton hotpots that will warm you right up! The small eateries also serve delicious Taiwanese food: beef noodles and braised pork rice.

The Taiwan High-Speed Rail makes it easy to reach Taichung City and explore its wonderful attractions. When in the city, why not also explore other attractions after you visit Sun Moon Lake and Cinjing! Here are our top picks of must-try destinations and tours:

Be entranced by the mind-boggling illusions at Museum of Illusions at Taichung City. Enter a room filled with mirrors, rooms with flying cards, and a room where everyone’s sizes change all of a sudden. You can bring your friends and family and snap amazing photos for the ‘gram, so your followers can figure out how the illusion works.

On the Classic Taichung Attractions and Gaomei Wetlands Day Tour, you’ll go to five of the city’s top destinations: be surrounded by beautiful fauna at Zhongshe Flower Market, visit Taichung Eslite Lane Park Shopping Complex, and check out the hipster shops of Shen Ji New Village, before you watch the sunset at Gaomei Wetlands! During the trip, you’ll also get to satiate your sweet tooth and visit Miyahara Ice Cream Shop.

Have a fulfilling experience with the whole family at Ecological Experience of Puli Paper Dome, where you can make hand-made lotus leaf rice, take a walk with bamboo walking sticks, and try the eggs from Paper Dome’s chickens. The little ones can learn about nature’s wonders by observing the eggs and pupae of the red-shouldered white mulberry parasite.

Immerse yourself in the finest art of the wooden kind on the Sanyi Wood Sculpture Museum and Dajia Mazu tour! <ake art of your own kind at Sanyi Duck Factory, where you can paint your own wooden duck, before walking through Sanyi Township, which is famous for woodcarving.

Now that you know how to go to Taichung City from Taipei via the Taiwan High-Speed Rail, it’s time to book your tickets and enjoy all the sights and stops, whether it’s nature, museums, the wondrous Sun Lake Moon, and more!

Become a THSR expert by reading Part I and Part II of our rail travel in Taiwan guide:

Taiwan also has different railways you can use to explore the country! Find out how to get the best transport pass for your needs:

Then you can embark on an epic 72-hour holiday In Taiwan!