One day in TAICHUNG! 🇹🇼 (12 things to do in Taiwan’s most livable city!)

One day in TAICHUNG! 🇹🇼 (12 things to do in Taiwan’s most livable city!)

hi everyone and welcome to Taichung Taiwan 
this is Taiwan’s second largest city so I’m pretty excited to see it we’ve seen a lot of 
Taiwan but we haven’t been here to Taichung yet so it’s our first time here we’re going 
to check out uh the highlights we only have one full day here going on we We got here we have 
about half a day tonight but we’re going to have to squeeze in as much as we can in this little 
amount of time so we’re going to take you around with us to see the city yeah let’s go let’s go 
the first thing we did in Taichug was head to Din tai fung which if you don’t know is a super 
super famous and popular Taiwanese restaurant that specializes in handmade dumplings so yeah we went 
there we got this little ticket it’s so popular you have to get a little ticket to wait uh and we 
followed a robot in which was kind of interesting we never seen that before and then we had amazing 
service and an amazing quick lunch before heading out and exploring Taichung City and walking 
around I noticed that a lot of Taichung looks uh a lot different from other Taiwanese cities 
and Allan was telling me that they’ve been uh developing a lot recently it’s like a very 
artsy and up and cominging newer city mhm mhm it’s supposed to be the second largest city 
in Taipei and it’s been getting a lot of the growth in the last 10 15 years compared to the 
rest of the country uh and you can really see it when you’re down here i think from where I’m 
sitting right here I can see like nine different uh apartment complexes going up but it’s also 
cool cuz everything feels very new and modern right like it’s not really the same vibe as a 
lot of the other places we’ve been in Taipei sorry Taiwan taiwan including Taipei but there’s 
also not very effective public transit there’s actually only one train line and that is the 
green line although it did get us to the city hall where kind of the neighborhood we’re in right 
now pretty quickly yeah you’re supposed to have to take a lot of taxis around here but didn’t need 
to for right now we wandered into the National Theater which was this cool looking building with 
these like I don’t know very cave like walkways all throughout it it’s pretty neat we went up 
and around the building explored it and there were a few cool shops and like cafes inside and 
stuff and then we went up to the very top where they had this cool garden where these structures 
that were cave like kind of ended and there were like flowers built in and like a few lookout 
points over the city which is kind of neat but anyways we got a lot more to see so let’s go this particular area is called Maple Park 
which I’m not really sure what’s here um it looks beautiful though it’s like a nice little 
oasis in the middle of the city yeah and the architecture in Taichung has been really 
cool and funky yeah it is cool right here is definitely very modern feeling well let’s 
check it out see why they call it Maple Park we got to go pick up our bags from the luggage 
storage and then we’re going to go check in so we just checked into our home for the next two 
nights in Taichung and it’s pretty nice uh booked this place off of Airbnb it’s a studio 
but it has two beds and it’s like almost like a two-bedroom there’s just no door it’s like 
this L and it looks really clean and it has this amazing view over the city which is awesome 
like you can see everything going on around here oh it’s hard it’s so hard rip oh god why it’s not 
even like firm it’s just hard man just conceded okay started playing our YouTube channel 
i needed to get pumped up he needs to get pumped up i needed the good memories from when we 
used to do this TV i was watching it yeah anyways uh we got all settled in our apartment had some 
tea to get a little lifted we’re a little tired right now but now now it’s night market which 
night market uh I don’t know which what was it called feng chia, gen chia, feng chia, i’m sure I’m 
mispronouncing it i’m probably pronouncing it so wrong yeah yeah but it’s supposed to 
be the biggest one in Taiwan allegedly but probably the biggest one in the city for sure 
probably the biggest one in the shiny city for sure i don’t know it’s hard to verify these 
sort of things i don’t think there’s like official government statistics or anything 
like it’s kind of informal by definition that is true we’ve been to the the world’s best 
coffee a few times here so anyways let’s go i know you guys are probably sick of seeing 
sweet potato balls but these ones are tri-colored and I’ve never seen anyone put so much care into 
making the sweet potato balls like that guy was putting his whole body weight onto that thing that 
squishes them i don’t know why they do that though if somebody knows let me know i’m actually curious 
i’ve seen so many people make them they all go squish squish squish and what’s the name of the 
place i don’t know xiaoa Little Xiaoa Little Eight they’re so good i always get them with 
clum powder on top too you can see that i’m a sucker for mushrooms they do a grilled 
king oyster mushroom thing here where they like barbecue them delicately and then slice them 
up they’re so good m wow spicy delicious but yeah the part I got was a little spicy i want 
to make these every day just like something you can eat literally every day it’s so 
good like you saying meaty juicy tender so we saw this stall selling candied hot 
sweet potatoes i love sweet potatoes here so had to stop um it looked like they 
were frying up sweet potatoes and then putting them in almost like a caramelized 
sugar coating and it’s a lot this thing’s heavy i don’t even know if we’re going 
to be able to eat all of this wow hot hot the sweet potato itself isn’t 
super sweet but it is in fact like a caramelized sugar so it has a 
slight caramelly flavor going on the sugar is crunchy and sticks in your 
teeth though they’re really good though they’re so sweet and crunchy it really 
like brings out the flavor in the sweet potato you know it’s like a candy diam 
sort of at Thanksgiving but even better i really like this honestly I’ve 
never seen this before and it’s delicious no steam i just got Thai tea out of a gas 
pump which is kitschy and weird um it got us got us to buy it it was very 
interesting for sure interactive DIY m good tea too it’s good tea incredibly sweet what do you think tasty mhm 
but I agree very sugary like I I’ll drink it but I don’t know if I can finish it law machine games are super super 
popular at this night market so I got to give it a try and I have two coins 
they have these little red panda toys i’d be happy with like any of them but I 
think I’m going to try to grab that pink one is it even possible it doesn’t 
seem like it goes far enough back come on Randy make a mistake 
i need more money than this what a ripoff i’d call that night market a success 
we’ve been here for hours but now we got to go to bed so we have a full 
day tomorrow and we’re well rested for Good morning from Taichung uh we got a little 
bit of a late start to the day so I guess not morning but anyways we started off the day at 
one of the cute cafes here and it was so good and we’re walking around and we’re noticing 
there’s a lot of like little themed restaurants like this one right behind us it’s a Halloween 
themed like American restaurant which we’re not going to eat at why eat American food when you’re 
in Taiwan and we’re American but yeah so uh we realized a lot of stuff kind of closes early 
here so I don’t know how much we’re actually going to be able to get done with our one day but 
I’m going to go eat some tasty food and see what we can see something I do like about Taichung so 
far is there’s a lot of green spaces tai Chong is very relaxed feeling kind of reminds me of like 
Roderdam or like Melbourne like the second tier city in any like big developed country that’s like 
not so like I don’t know like jammed with people and stuff like it’s very like relaxed like there’s 
a big park lined with all these nice buildings and cafes and I wish we had more time to explore 
just like hang out and go to good restaurants the much less expensive version from the local 
spot versus going to be hot it’s in Taiong i think you’re going to like 
those you know when you’re a kid and you like become an adult and 
you realize you can eat whatever you want whatever you want it’s kind of how I 
feel here with me i could eat these every day oh I guess I’m going to finish up or half 
this video is just going to be me eating these dumplings so the next spot on our list of 
things that we wanted to see is Shenzhi which is like a little market for handmade 
and local goods so we wanted to check that out cuz we just love seeing like I don’t know 
the local scene of what what’s what’s the word I’m looking for i don’t know local 
art scene local art scene yes thank you this is a lot bigger than I thought it would be 
it’s super cute so many cute things everybody’s making and and there is a lot of uh stuff that’s 
handmade and like tiny things love that love that i mean like your standard crafts fair stuff too 
but then they have things like potato ball yes mit sweet potato ball those are my favorite thing 
I’ve seen super cute yeah little uh poke felt like vegetables from the region bamboo shoots yeah 
those are so cute yeah lots of inspo here too i would say that was worth a quick stop do 
you want to go to the next spot now mhm okay one of our favorite things to do in Taiwan is 
explore the temples this one is called Paochueh Temple i think I said that correctly i probably butchered 
it anyway but built in 1927 by the Japanese it is a Buddhist temple with a giant Buddha and actually 
behind me is the original temple and they built a big concrete protection structure around it 
cuz the old one was I guess kind of getting messed up by weather and stuff but there it is 
that’s the original one from 1927 then we’ll go see the Buddha too it’s pretty interesting that 
they chose to like encapsulate it in a secondary building it’s pretty unique mhm i don’t think 
we’ve seen this except in museums yeah true i guess this is really popular with Japanese 
tourists cuz there’s a 600 kg bell that the Japanese gifted well aside from that’s being built 
by the Japanese during the colonial period but after uh in recent times there’s a huge bell we’ll 
see in the tower i think it’s over there that the Japanese gave the Taiwanese and so Japanese 
tourists like to come see it i don’t know why just taking in the size of this this Buddha 
here it’s humongous it’s humongous you know it’s it’s interesting coming places like this 
where there’s no tourists we had never heard of it before coming here and there’s so many I don’t 
know i feel there’s so many big Buddha structures in the world that people kind of flock to and 
this is just kind of like an unknown little little gem yeah to be fair though there’s some 
like you go to and it’s like this one’s 2,000 years old you’re like “Wow how did they make it 
that big?” Like you know and here this one’s from 1927 you’re like “Well yeah Japanese have like 
airplanes.” So yeah or when I visited mainland China we or I saw one that was uh literally like 
skyscraper sized like this is large building size but not quite like skyscraper like you can see 
it in the hills like miles away i guess you got to pick and choose your big Buddha experience 
I guess so but this is pretty cool it is it’s awesome still i mean it’s really cool that 
there’s no one around it’s just us there’s not another person here and it’s so peaceful and 
beautiful we’re in like this little slice of the city there’s butterflies hanging out everywhere 
and uh we saw two people going in I’m assuming to go pray but yeah that’s it it’s nice it’s nice 
when you find little spots like this let’s keep looking around and then we went to the Confucian 
Temple which was like a 12-minute walk away so just about a 10-minute walk away from the 
last temple is the Tai Chong Fishious Temple which was built in the 1970s I believe so 
it’s not super old but it’s a great place to check out some more Chinese architecture 
so let’s go check it out it looks beautiful over here it’s the perfect time of day with the 
golden sunlight like that late afternoon oh so good this is so beautiful 
like just so intricately done and no one’s here it’s strange it’s strange to 
see it some empty somewhere so nicely done you know mhm mhm yeah it’s kind of cool going to Tai 
Chong you get to be like one of the handful of tourists yeah i’m honestly surprised more people 
aren’t here with its proximity to Taipei yeah in fact though there’s so few tourists you walk 
around on the street and you actually recognize other tourists that you’d seen and you’re like 
he did that this morning i saw you yesterday yeah wow i do not care if this is like the most touristy 
thing to do in Taiwan this is where bubble tea was allegedly invented back in the 1980s one of 
the shopkeepers here poured boa pearls into her milk tea and everyone liked it and it became 
a top selling product right away and it just kept going and going now it’s Taiwan’s national 
drink now you can find it all over the world so this is the birthplace right here and this is 
the original milk bubble tea i think by the way it is really good milky it’s a lot more melon in 
flavor i feel like the pearls usually get cooked in like a molassesy fragrance this is just plain 
sugar I think so it’s very very lightly sweet it’s really good though i thought for sure we 
were just going to get like tourist trapped but it’s good has a pleasant machine gun fire 
sensation yeah that’s what I was saying it’s weird comes with the straw and what else did you get a 
brown sugar latte and this one came hot does it have um pearls in the bottom yes it does it does 
have them in the bottom i don’t think we’ve ever had it hot before i’m trying to get some to show 
you but uh it’s so latty see there they are but they’re much softer big pock and much 
sweeter because this is like the brown sugar one yeah I added a little more 
sugar to that one too i ordered half sugar on or no 30% sugar on that and half 
sugar on that i wish this one came cold that’s really good i mean they’re both really 
good i’m impressed i like for sure thought this was a spoon like you know when restaurants kind of 
get overhyped for tourists like quality tends to go down not this one it’s great what are we 
going to do after this night watch i farted there’s a famous ice cream and sweet shop 
called Miara that’s sort of like a scene out of Harry Potter very popular with tour buses 
i’d say one of the most touristy things you can do here yeah we just saw some people outside 
checking out some Instagram shots of their ice creams which looked amazing but I think I’m going 
to die if I eat any more sugar right now me too it definitely had like Harry Potter vibes but 
like Chinese it wasn’t like Wizarding World but like however they styled it was like quite similar 
yeah it was cool the ice creams are hella weird too they were like They’re like awesome black 
tea rosemary and lavender or like ground haka tea or I would love to try one of those ice 
creams one of these days but just not today we just stopped by the the toilet in the park and 
I had just squatted down to you know take a leak and this huge rat comes like flying out of the 
trash can where you throw the papers and there’s like toilet papers filling out it scared me so bad 
but we’re just going to save that for the memory then we walked to Asian Square which was like 
right next to it but it was filled with Southeast Asian vendors selling the same stuff you can find 
at the other night markets but like a third the price yeah it’s a really interesting market 
and then like tons of like Thai restaurants and then like up in the corner you found this 
one shop it looked like somebody just closed up shop one day and never came back i think the 
magazine was from 2004 it was just coated in dust it was a weird place we stumbled into yeah it 
was super weird we did notice um like when we walked out of that shopping center and through the 
neighborhood there was like a It was definitely a neighborhood like catered towards immigrants 
that had moved to Taiwan because they were serving like a bunch of Southeast Asian types 
of foods like I don’t remember seeing anything else but yeah like Vietnamese Thai Indonesian 
and we were like “Huh this is interesting.” And then we we walked by this one fur place and 
we were like “Oh my god this smells like Vietnam.” Like we’re in the Hanoi and we we had to stop and 
get some fur i was too lured in by the Vietnamese restaurants on the way to the night market i 
think we’re a little bit hungry and uh it’s just snacks that change the face sometimes oh yeah 
that’s really good spot on yeah as good as the best stuff you can get in Hanoi it’s delicious and 
Hanoi is a super foodie city so that’s like utmost compliments mhm yeah this is great i almost wish 
we just stuck to F we got something else coming too alan ordered Kuang yeah that’s how you say it 
and it is basically a lemongrass pork chop i don’t normally like pork chops but the first bite I was 
like that tastes like bacon and you can see on the edges it’s all like fried pork fat so it just 
had that explosion of like pork fat goodness on it tonight we’re doing the Yang Street 
Market uh I don’t know much about it other than it’s like the second largest 
one and it’s less pedestrian friendly there’s like a lot of motorbikes roaring around 
you know first thing we did was play claw games and Brandy spent $90 Taiwanese dollars trying 
to get a fried chicken keychain it was so cute though but she didn’t get it get it the 
the Taiwanese claw machines are hard man i get up walking away in Shane the first thing we actually ate there 
was like all the way at the end of the market and they had these like crazy cool lights 
like all sorts of light fixtures and some of them were moving in rainbows and there’s girls 
singing and these ones blinking above you it was like neon light city yeah very Southeast 
Asia feeling honestly yeah yeah and then uh we saw these people making these xolong 
bao by hand and they looked amazing so we we walked up and ordered some and yes this 
is my third set of xiaolong bao in the last 24 hours don’t judge me i just love them so 
much i know they’re bad for you probably but the mouth feel on these these are so good 
like the most perfect delicate flavor a little gingery a little spicy 
from the dipping sauce look at that perfectly cooked too i think these are my fave ones we’ve had 
since being back yeah better than Dint Taiong i I agree sorry if you guys 
like Taiong but uh we’re probably just uncultured swine what you got what 
you got there dragon fruit my honest 50 really really good it’s nice that they 
sell some like fresh fruits and vegetables at night it’s just mostly fresh fruits 
mostly fruits i’ve seen some vegetables alan’s making us wait in line for Chinese fried 
chicken okay so some nice old friend that told me I was a dummy waiting in line for like 40 
minutes for chicken yeah he tried waiting for angel chicken right there and across the 
way chumu Shan but it does look amazing wishy right oh yeah I was everything I 
ever wanted Taiwanese fried chicken to be although it was really spicy you can see 
I’m like still got a little sweet slight like licorice flavor on those plus all the 
like five spice and Oh so good really good would recommend well I think that’s it 
for today oh and Brandy was nice to me today she was actually nice i was well fed 
she was nice to me all day almost okay

We’ve explored a lot of Taiwan, but this is our first time in Taichung! In this vlog we’re exploring some of the best things to do in Taichung – including trying the “world’s first” bubble tea, exploring some cool temples, and of course, eating at Taichung’s night markets. 😉

We’re Brandi & Alan, full-time travelers and creators since 2018. We post fun, informational vlogs to both document our travels and help you on your own trips.

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Welcome to Taichung!
0:46 Din Tai Fung
1:15 A little about Taichung
2:15 National Theatre
2:55 Maple Park
3:38 Mini Airbnb Tour
4:38 Feng Chia Night Market
9:45 Exploring Taichung
11:17 XLB
12:00 Shen Ji New Village
13:15 Paochueh Temple
15:50 Taichung Confucius Temple
17:21 Where bubble tea was invented!
19:48 Miyahara
20:56 ASEAN Square & Surroundings
22:56 Yizhong Street Night Market
26:07 Thanks for watching! Subscribe for more adventures! 😀