Taichung City: Nearly the Capital in 1887, Became the Second Largest Special Municipality Only in 2010

30-second overview: In October 1887 Liu Ming-chuan petitioned to establish Taiwan as a province, selecting Qiaozaitou in Changhua County (today's Taichung urban core) as the provincial capital and planning an Eight Trigrams-shaped city. Construction began in 1889¹. Liu resigned in 1891; in 1894 Shao You-lian formally moved the capital north to Taipei, and work on the Taichung provincial capital stopped. On 1 October 1920 the Government-General of Taiwan implemented the "five prefectures, two sub-prefectures" system, establishing Taichung Prefecture; Taichung Street and nine surrounding villages merged to form Taichung City². Tunghai University broke ground on Dadu Mountain in 1955; Luce Memorial Chapel was completed in 1963, called "the first work through which modernist architectural vocabulary entered Taiwan"³. At 01:47 on 21 September 1999 the Chelungpu Fault ruptured from Jiji, Nantou all the way to Dongshi, Taichung; 358 people died in Dongshi Township⁴. On 25 December 2010 the county and city merged and upgraded to a special municipality with 29 districts. In 2016 the National Taichung Theater designed by Toyo Ito officially opened in Xitun District at a construction cost of NT$4.36 billion⁵. Today 2.86 million people live in this city that waited 123 years to transform from a provincial-capital candidate into the second largest special municipality.

The Seven Months When the Dajia Xishe Burned the Sub-prefect's Office

One hundred fifty-six years before Liu Ming-chuan petitioned for provincial status, an anti-Qing uprising larger in scale than the Lin Shuang-wen Rebellion erupted on this Taichung Basin.

In late 1731 (the 9th year of the Yongzheng reign), Lin Wu-li (Linbao Maluku), headman of the Dajia Xishe of the Taokas people, rose in revolt because "Qing officials assigned excessive corvée labor," burning down the Taiwan Prefecture Danshui Sub-prefect's Office⁶. The rebellion lasted seven months; the Qing court mobilized over six thousand troops from the mainland and "used barbarians to control barbarians" before suppressing it. The largest armed anti-government uprising by Plains Indigenous peoples in Taiwan's history had its main stage in today's Dajia and Qingshui areas of Taichung.

The Dajia Xishe belonged to the Taokas; their traditional settlements were distributed along the Dajia River, and "the coastal plain from Taichung City through Miaoli County to Hsinchu County" was this group's territory⁷. Further south, the Papora people occupied the Dadu River basin; 17th-century Dutch records note they established the "Middag Kingdom." Further south still were the Babuza. These three Plains Indigenous groups later mostly migrated collectively to the Puli Basin; today no trace of their villages remains in the Taichung urban area, only place names like "Dadun," "Lanxing Fort," and "Qiaozaitou" — layers left by Han settlers who arrived later.

📝 Curator's note: The Dajia Xishe anti-Qing event is often compressed into the single phrase "Taokas rebellion in the 9th year of Yongzheng." It preceded the 1786 Lin Shuang-wen Rebellion by 55 years and in its time approached a full-island mobilization, yet today's history textbooks have no place for it. The reason is not complex: Lin Shuang-wen was a Han immigrant, absorbed into the "immigrant pioneering history" narrative; Lin Wu-li was Taokas, absorbed into the "barbarian rebellion pacification history" narrative, which in the 21st-century Taiwan history framework basically has no seat. Writing the Taichung Basin must begin with "who lived here before Han cultivation, and who launched a seven-month war first." The first historical name of the Taichung Basin is in the Taokas language.

The Deity in Lin Yong-xing's Home Later Became a 340-Kilometer Pilgrimage

Front of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple, 2018-08-04. Photo: Dquai, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Two years after the anti-Qing uprising ended, a temple began to grow on this land that would later attract over a hundred thousand people to walk 340 kilometers on foot.

In 1730 (the 8th year of Yongzheng), Lin Yong-xing of Meizhou Island immigrated to Taiwan with his family and "respectfully requested a statue of the Heavenly Holy Mother from the Meizhou Mazu ancestral temple for family worship"⁸. In 1732 (the 10th year of Yongzheng), local gentry, seeing the flourishing incense, built a small shrine with Lin's consent. In 1770 (the 35th year of Qianlong), the shrine was rebuilt and named "Tianhou Temple." In 1787 (the 52nd year of Qianlong), "led by notable donors including Tong Jin-ting, the Dajia Sub-prefect; Chen Feng-hao, a metropolitan graduate; Lien Kun-shan, a local scholar; and Qiao Hua-long, a Plains Indigenous headman, land was donated for reconstruction," and after expansion it was renamed "Jenn Lann Temple"⁸.

This temple began as a single family's household deity; 57 years later it became Dajia's largest temple; 240 years after that it became the starting point of Taiwan's largest folk event.

The Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage departs every lunar March, 9 days and 8 nights, a 340-kilometer round trip on foot crossing four counties and cities: Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, and Chiayi⁹. The route leaves from Dajia, Taichung, passes through Qingshui, Shalu, Dadu into Changhua, through Changhua City, Yuanlin, Beidou, Xizhou, then into Yunlin's Xiluo, Huwei, Tuku, Yuanchang, finally reaching Chiayi's Xingang Fengtian Temple — over a hundred temples, 21 townships and districts. Annual participation "exceeds several hundred thousand person-times," with peak cumulative counts readily reaching millions. In 2010 the Council for Cultural Affairs designated it an "Important Folk Custom of the Republic of China Intangible Cultural Heritage"; Discovery Channel ranked it alongside the Vatican Christmas Mass and the Mecca Pilgrimage as one of the "World's Three Major Religious Events."

But this route has not looked the same for 290 years.

Before 1988 (ROC year 77), Jenn Lann Temple actually went to Beigang Chaotian Temple for pilgrimage. Starting that year, "Jenn Lann Temple cancelled the pilgrimage to Beigang Chaotian Temple and changed to a pilgrimage to Xingang Fengtian Temple; the Beigang pilgrimage was thus interrupted"¹⁰. The reason for the change was inter-temple politics: Jenn Lann Temple was unwilling to accept Chaotian Temple calling this pilgrimage "returning to the mother temple to pay respects to the ancestor" (implying Dajia Mazu was a division of Beigang Mazu), and demanded Chaotian Temple publicly clarify. Chaotian Temple refused; Jenn Lann Temple left. A pilgrimage route walked for a hundred years was unilaterally rewritten in a single move because two temples disagreed on "who is whose mother temple." From that year on, Yunlin's Beigang lost an annual lunar March spectacle, and Chiayi's Xingang gained one.

✦ "The Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage draws over several hundred thousand participants annually and is one of the world's three major religious events." (Discovery Channel selection, widely cited⁹)

The current chairman of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple is Yen Ching-piao, a native of Qingshui on the coastal line. Early in his career he served as speaker of the Taichung County Council and was elected to four terms as legislator. His family, this temple, and the coastal line political factions are one and the same root. That root will appear again later.

The Unfinished Eight Trigrams City

During the Qing period, central Taiwan's administrative center was at Changhua County City (today's Changhua urban core), not Taichung. Not until October 1887 did Liu Ming-chuan and Fujian-Zhejiang Governor-General Yang Chang-jun jointly petition to reorganize Taiwan's administrative divisions, placing Taichung on the capital candidate list for the first time.

"After Taiwan was established as a province, the provincial capital was chosen at the former Changhua County Qiaozaitu (today's Taichung City)"¹. Liu's site selection had two dimensions: Qiaozaitou lay at the center of Taiwan island, able to balance north-south defense. The Lanxing Fort area had existing settlements like Dadun Street and Litoudian, providing a decent development foundation. "In establishing administration, terrain comes first; in governing, evenness is paramount" — these words from his memorial proposed dividing Taiwan into three prefectures and one sub-prefecture, with Taiwan Prefecture's seat at Qiaozaitou, precisely to shift the island's administrative center of gravity from Tainan to the central region.

Construction on the provincial capital began in 1889 (the 15th year of Guangxu). "An Eight Trigrams-shaped city and a large number of official buildings were begun," and "the surviving North Gate tower and prefectural examination hall are the largest in scale among all city walls built during the Qing period in Taiwan"². The Eight Trigrams city plan was an anomaly in Qing city-wall history; most Qing county cities followed square or circular layouts. Liu's Eight Trigrams city drew on both feng shui and military deployment logic, with eight main thoroughfares radiating from the center.

But this city was never completed.

Liu Ming-chuan resigned and returned home in 1891. His successor as Governor of Fujian-Taiwan, Shao You-lian, followed a different governance logic. The Chinese Wikipedia records this turning point verbatim: "After weighing gains and losses, Shao You-lian pragmatically cancelled most of the new policy measures" and "the provincial capital began construction in 1889, but after Shao You-lian assumed the governorship he ordered construction halted and formally moved the capital to Taipei Prefecture"¹¹. On the eve of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the decision to move the capital north to Taipei was finalized. The following year (1895) the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, ceding Taiwan to Japan; Liu Ming-chuan's Eight Trigrams City never had another chance to be completed.

Conventional narratives often cite "malaria" as the reason for the capital's northward move, but direct evidence for this claim is thin in search results. A closer-to-truth explanation is: Shao You-lian judged that the Qing court's strategic investment in Taiwan was ebbing; rather than spend fiscal resources building a new city in the central region, it was better to move the administrative center of gravity to Taipei, which already had a commercial foundation. The central region's city-wall project was shelved; Taipei Prefecture grew a new political center from the commercial clusters of Bangka and Dadaocheng.

📝 Curator's note: The conventional narrative says "Taichung nearly became the capital, but malaria prevented it." This account reverses cause and effect. Malaria in 19th-century central Taiwan was not unique to Taichung; all of southern Taiwan was a malaria zone at the time. The real reason Shao You-lian halted the provincial capital was the Qing court's downward reassessment of Taiwan's strategic value: Liu Ming-chuan's proactive new-province building direction did not match Beijing's fiscal capacity at the moment. An island the Qing court was no longer willing to invest in heavily had no budget to sustain two administrative centers simultaneously. Capital siting has always been a political question — whether the state is willing to invest in that location.

The "City" the Japanese Brought and the Party Chiang Wei-shui Brought

Twenty-five years after the Qing halted construction, Taichung gained a formal "city"-level administrative establishment for the first time.

In 1896 (Meiji 29) the Government-General of Taiwan established Taichung County; the name "Taichung" formally appeared from this point². In 1901 it became Taichung Sub-prefecture. On 1 October 1920 the Government-General implemented the "five prefectures, two sub-prefectures" system, merging Taichung and Nantou Sub-prefectures into Taichung Prefecture, and simultaneously establishing Taichung City: "Taichung Street and nine surrounding villages merged to form Taichung City"². From this day forward Taichung joined Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Hsinchu as the five administrative centers on the island upgraded to "city" status.

Taichung's urban planning during the Japanese period referenced the grid patterns of Kyoto and the Keihanshin region: a main axis in front of the train station, a checkerboard street grid, and two artificial canals — Green River and Willow River — running through the city. The Western Trunk Line railway opened fully in 1908, making Taichung Station the central transportation hub. Taichung Park was completed in 1917; the paired pavilions on Heart Lake still visible today were built that year.

But what truly cemented Taichung's place in Taiwan's history in the 1920s was people.

"Taichung Prefecture and Taichung City became a stronghold of non-violent anti-Japanese movements from the 1920s onward; the Taiwan People's Party founded by Chiang Wei-shui and others was also established in Taichung City"². Lin Hsien-tang led the Taiwan Cultural Association from Wufeng; Chiang Wei-shui founded the Taiwan People's Party; Lien Wen-ching presided over the left wing of the Taiwan Cultural Association — the center of gravity of 1920s Taiwan social movements lay in the central region. In 1926 Chuang Chi-sheng convened the founding meeting of the Central Bookstore at the Drunken Moon Tower beside Taichung's Green River; it officially opened on 3 January 1927, with shareholders including "Lin Hsien-tang, Lin Yu-chun, Chen Hsu-ku, Chang Shen-chieh, Lai Ho, etc."¹² — practically the core membership roster of the Taiwan Cultural Association.

The Central Bookstore was originally planned as the "Central Club, a meeting place for the Taiwan Cultural Association in central Taiwan"; after the association split into left and right wings in 1927 it operated as a bookstore. It was "the first specialized bookstore in central Taiwan importing Chinese and Japanese books and magazines, and the largest Chinese-language bookstore on the entire island"¹². It closed in 1998 due to financial difficulties and the building was sold; the Upright Goodness Humanities Foundation bought back the property rights in 2016 and it officially reopened in January 2020 — a full 93 years after its 1927 opening.

The Central Bookstore's existence, disappearance, and rebirth are material evidence of Taichung's identity as a "central Taiwan cultural stronghold." The non-violent anti-Japanese movements of the Japanese period left few physical traces; even the venue where Chiang Wei-shui founded the Taiwan People's Party was long ago demolished, and the Wufeng Lin Family Garden was burned and rebuilt. But this bookstore remains, the old building on Jiguang Street remains, the Chinese and Japanese books still mixed in the display window. It is still a bookstore that sells books.

The Chapel on Dadu Mountain Without a Single Beam

Luce Memorial Chapel, 2021-05-16. Photo: ChiaWeiHo, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Postwar Taichung's first claim to a name on the global map was a chapel.

On 11 November 1953 U.S. Vice President Nixon attended the groundbreaking at Tunghai University's Dadu Mountain campus. On 2 November 1955 Tunghai University held its founding dedication ceremony, which became the university's anniversary date; the first president was Dr. James C. N. Chen (Chen Yao-nung)¹³. The founding background was "part of the American Christian overseas missionary enterprise, closely linked with U.S. aid to Asia and Cold War containment of communism"¹³. Tunghai was a link in the Cold War-era U.S. aid higher-education network, alongside the re-establishment of Tsing Hua in Hsinchu (1956) and Chiao Tung in Hsinchu (1958).

The campus was sited on Dadu Mountain for being "away from the dust but not the city": the summit overlooks Taichung City but is separated from the city center at Taichung Station by the Dadu Plateau. From 1956 onward, architectural teams designed a series of low, terrain-hugging courtyard-style buildings on this slope — tiled roofs, exposed red brick walls, quadrangle layouts — the starting point of what later became known as the "Tunghai Architectural School."

But what the world remembers most about Tunghai is the chapel on Dadu Mountain, rising like two palms pressed together in a double-curved thin shell.

✦ "The first work through which modernist architectural vocabulary entered Taiwan." (Luce Memorial Chapel, Ministry of Culture national monument registration rationale³)

In 1956 I. M. Pei invited the then-35-year-old Chen Chi-kwan to discuss design proposals. The design drawings were published in a U.S. architectural journal in 1957. Construction formally began in late 1962. On 2 November 1963 it was completed, coinciding with Tunghai's 8th anniversary, and Luce Memorial Chapel was formally inaugurated³. The name honors Henry R. Luce, founder of Time magazine: "built with donated funds to spread the gospel and commemorate his father, missionary Henry Winters Luce"³.

The chapel's design was controversial. In 1999 I. M. Pei publicly claimed "Luce Memorial Chapel is entirely my design"; Chen Chi-kwan maintained it was a joint design. More reliable details are these: Chen Chi-kwan, citing "Taiwan's frequent earthquakes," opposed Pei's initial Gothic brick proposal and advocated a "double-curved thin-shell structure." The chapel we see today has "double-curved surfaces joined to form an upward-reaching image, using a thin-shell lattice beam structure; the interior lacks traditional beam-column construction"³. A glass skylight runs along the separated ridge, signifying "a line of sky." Not a single beam runs through the entire chapel; four concrete curved surfaces support each other.

In April 2019 it was upgraded to a national monument, registered as "university campus architecture." From 1963 to today, 62 years later, this chapel has grown from a corner of the Dadu Mountain campus into a Taichung tourist landmark, into the icon of postwar modernist architecture in Taiwan, into the shape every Tunghai alumnus recognizes no matter how many years since graduation. It gave Taichung its first building "the whole world recognizes" — 53 years before the National Taichung Theater.

The Chelungpu Fault Tore Through Dongshi: 358 Names

921 Earthquake Education Park, 2024-09-21. Photo: Liu Shu-fu / Office of the President, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

21 September 1999, 01:47:15.9. Eight kilometers beneath Jiji Township, the Chelungpu Fault slipped northward.

Seismic waves reached Taichung in mere seconds.

Total deaths island-wide: 2,415. Taichung County (not yet merged with Taichung City at the time) accounted for over 1,154 — the figure used by Chinese Wikipedia; a CDC early November survey report recorded 1,190⁴, the difference being subsequent tallies of those who succumbed to injuries over 50-plus days. This article adopts the conservative phrasing "over 1,100." Taichung County: 16,861 buildings completely collapsed, 12,341 half-collapsed. "Taichung County and Nantou County accounted for approximately 95% of all damaged households island-wide"⁴.

The deepest wound was in Dongshi.

"Dongshi Township had 358 deaths, the highest casualty count of any township in this disaster"⁴. Two Wang Chao buildings collapsed entirely; those two buildings alone took 28 lives. Dongshi Township is Taichung County's largest Hakka settlement; Hakka people comprise about 80% of the population, and the local vernacular is the Dapu dialect of Taiwan Hakka¹⁴. Taichung's densest Dapu-dialect Hakka settlement was the township with the highest death toll in Taichung County from the 921 quake. One earthquake sliced away a massive chunk of Dongshi's population, housing, and Hakka cultural center simultaneously.

Fengyuan City: 160 deaths. Dali City: 162. Shigang Township: 174 — a township with only one-third of Dongshi's population but a nearly identical death toll.

Shigang's injury was not only the death toll. Shigang Dam happened to sit directly atop the Chelungpu Fault. "Because it was located precisely on the Chelungpu Fault zone, spillway gates 15 through 18 fractured and were damaged, subsiding approximately five meters; the dam body fractured, operating systems destroyed, unable to intercept stream water"⁴. A key dam in the Dajia River basin turned into ruins in those 102 seconds.

Further south in Wufeng, the Chelungpu Fault cut through the Guangfu Junior High sports field, "causing approximately 2.5 meters of vertical displacement and uplift." This sports field was later preserved in situ; designated the "921 Earthquake Education Park" in 2001, fully opened on 21 September 2004; today it is Taiwan's most complete earthquake museum, with 340 meters of fault-zone surface rupture left exactly as it was, letting you see with your own eyes how a fault tore a school sports field in two.

The Central Cross-Island Highway from Guguan to Techi Dam: after 921 "slope collapse exceeded 80% of mileage; roadbed completely lost at 26 locations"¹⁵. Not until 16 November 2018 was bus traffic restored, and only on the Tongxiao section. The Executive Yuan approved a reconstruction plan in 2024: "adopting the Qingshan bypass alignment, total cost exceeding NT$20.6 billion, estimated earliest completion 2037"¹⁵. From 1999 to 2037, this road has been under repair in the Central Mountain Range for 38 years and still isn't finished. Taichung's mountain areas are still dealing with the wounds left by those 102 seconds today.

Nantou's wounds were in Zhongliao, Jiufenerhshan, the Wufeng Lin Family Garden; Taichung's wounds were in Dongshi, Shigang Dam, Guguan. The same fault cut the two central counties into brothers sharing a common trauma¹⁶.

📝 Curator's note: The conventional 921 narrative centers Nantou: the epicenter was in Jiji, 886 deaths, the Seediq cultural stronghold shattered. Taichung County's injuries are often brushed aside as "collateral damage to a neighboring county." But look at the numbers: Taichung County had 1,154 deaths — 268 more than Nantou. The reason is geography: the northern segment of the Chelungpu Fault runs through Taichung County's foothills; Dongshi, Shigang, Dali, Taiping — these townships sit directly on the fault, and 1990s rapid urbanization in Taichung County concentrated population on the fault zone. The Fengyuan–Dali–Taiping corridor was the central region's heaviest urban casualty zone aside from Jiji in 1999. Writing 921 as "Nantou's tragedy" erases these 1,154 lives in Taichung County.

Houli's Rice Fields and Fabs Negotiating on the Same Land

While 921's trauma was still being rebuilt, another industrial park began to grow on the Taichung Basin.

The Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) timeline has long been confused. As early as the 1990s the National Science Council was researching site selection for a "third science park"; in 1999 the NSC submitted the Comprehensive Environmental Analysis Study for Science Park Establishment; in May 2001 the Executive Yuan approved the "Green Silicon Island Construction Blueprint" policy; in 2001 the CTSP Site Selection Committee chose Dadu Mountain (Xitun and Daya) and Huwei as bases from eight candidates¹⁷. The Executive Yuan formally approved the preparatory plan on 23 September 2002¹⁷ — eight years later than the commonly remembered "1994 CTSP."

"From preparatory plan approval to construction start: only 10 months and 5 days"¹⁷. On 28 July 2003 CTSP opened for tenant occupancy. This speed is rare in Taiwan's public works history — even the Taoyuan Airport Phase 2 wasn't this fast. On 27 October 2004 AU Optronics officially began mass production, the first major manufacturer to do so in CTSP.

Houli Park is CTSP's second phase. "Promotion of the Houli Park preparatory plan likewise began after the Executive Yuan approved the preparatory plan on 27 June 2005, until 31 March 2006 when the first tenant began factory construction"¹⁷. Houli was one of the 921 disaster townships; the park's establishment carried a layer of "post-disaster industrial reconstruction" political consideration. On 16 November 2009 Erlin Park received approval; this park lies in Changhua County, crossing Taichung's administrative boundary.

CTSP's major tenants include TSMC (largest landholding), AU Optronics, Micron Taiwan, and Chih Tung Precision. Industrial positioning follows the "North: Hsinchu Science Park, Central: CTSP, South: Southern Taiwan Science Park" semiconductor axis: Hsinchu leads IC design and advanced-process foundry; CTSP leads memory and panels; Southern Taiwan Science Park leads wafer fabrication and packaging. Viewed from Taiwan's semiconductor map, the central node took 9 years from initial 1994 planning to 2003 tenant occupancy to be put in place.

✦ "Since the Executive Yuan approved the CTSP preparatory plan on 23 September 2002... from plan approval to construction start: only 10 months and 5 days; tenant occupancy opened on 28 July 2003." (Central Taiwan Science Park official history¹⁷)

But CTSP's expansion has not been without cost. Houli Park's expansion sparked intense local controversy: park effluent flows toward the upper Dajia River; agricultural irrigation water quality, air pollution, noise, and groundwater depletion have all entered environmental impact assessment hearings. The 2010s environmental assessment process for Houli Park's Qixing Base expansion saw multiple conflicts between residents and manufacturers. This segment of Taichung Basin history is 1990s rice fields and 2000s fabs negotiating on the same land.

No Straight Lines Inside Toyo Ito's Curved Walls

Thirteen years after CTSP's launch, Taichung gained its first world-class contemporary architecture.

National Taichung Theater exterior, 2018-03-17. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In October 2001 the Council for Cultural Affairs approved a subsidy for half the construction cost. In 2005 an international competition was held; Japanese architect Toyo Ito won first prize. Groundbreaking began 3 December 2009. On 23 November 2014 Ma Ying-jeou and Jason Hu cut the ribbon at completion. On 30 September 2016 Vice President Chen Chien-jen attended the official opening⁵. Construction cost: NT$4.36 billion.

The theater contains three halls: Grand Theater 2,007 seats (including 133 orchestra pit), Middle Theater 794 seats (including 94 orchestra pit), Black Box 200 seats. What the global architecture community remembers most is its curved-wall structure.

"Using humanity's most primitive 'treehouse' and 'cave' concepts to design acoustic caves; all interior walls are curved surfaces." (National Taichung Theater official design statement⁵)

The entire building has no straight walls or standard columns: 58 curved walls connect, with over 70,000 custom small-dimension concrete panels inside, each individually cast according to its curved angle. Construction difficulty led Discovery Channel to film a 2017 documentary Decoding: The 8-Year Construction Process, recording the 2009–2016 construction. Toyo Ito himself calls it his "lifetime masterpiece"⁵; chronologically it came after his Pritzker Prize win (2013), when the theater was still unfinished.

The theater sits on Taiwan Boulevard Section 3 in Xitun District — the core development zone of the new Taichung City after the 2010 merger. In architectural scale it forms a triangle with Taipei's National Theater and Concert Hall and Kaohsiung's Weiwuying, Taiwan's "three major performing arts centers in north, central, and south"; on the central Taiwan cultural map it joins the 1988 National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and the 1955 Tunghai Luce Memorial Chapel to form Taichung's three-tier cultural architecture genealogy: postwar modernism (1963 Luce Chapel) / 1980s public art museum (1988 NTMoFA) / 21st-century international starchitecture (2016 Theater)¹⁸.

The NTMoFA's history is also worth noting. In June 1988 the "Taiwan Provincial Art Museum" was completed and opened, "presided over by Taiwan Provincial Governor Chiu Chuang-huan and Taiwan Provincial Government Education Department Director Chen Cho-min"¹⁸. After streamlining in 1999 it transferred to the Council for Cultural Affairs and was renamed "National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts," "becoming the country's first national-level art museum." This transformation from provincial to national happened to step precisely on the political rhythm of streamlining (December 1998).

The Theater, NTMoFA, and Tunghai Luce Chapel all sit on the west side of Taichung's urban core. The axis of Xitun and Beitun Districts is the true contemporary heart of Taichung after the 2010 merger. The old city center's (Central, East Districts) decline and the new axis's rise are the 2010s westward shift of Taichung's geographic center of gravity.

29 Districts Spanning from Sea to Mountain

While the Theater was still under construction, Taichung underwent its largest postwar administrative transformation.

On 25 December 2010, Taichung County (21 townships/cities) and Taichung City (8 districts) formally merged and upgraded to the special municipality of Taichung City. 29 districts. New Taipei City, Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City (county-city mergers) upgraded the same day; Taoyuan followed later, upgrading in 2014¹⁹. From the 1945 postwar establishment of separate Taichung City and Taichung County to the 2010 merger, the 65-year "county vs. city" dual-track administrative structure ended.

The merger should have improved administrative efficiency, but in practice it created new urban-rural gaps. The former Taichung City (8 districts) had concentrated elites, dense budgets, and complete public facilities; the former Taichung County's (21 townships/cities) mountain areas, coastal line, and Hakka villages were reincorporated into the special municipality's administrative level, but resource allocation still favored the core metro area.

Gaomei Wetlands with wind turbines, 2018-05-11. Photo: Axjun, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Heping District is the most distinctive of the 29. Area approximately 1,038 square kilometers — largest in Taichung City — but population only about 10,000. It is Taichung City's only mountain indigenous district²⁰. The Atayal northern group is distributed across Sancha, Shuangqi, Daguan, and Syueshan tribes. Further east up the upper Dajia River, Huan-shan Tribe (Sqoyaw) is the "largest Atayal tribe in the Lishan area, 177 households, 590 people as of end-2023"²⁰. Wuling Farm at 1,750–2,200 meters elevation, together with Cingjing and Fushoushan, are Taiwan's three major high-mountain farms; it is the trailhead for Xueshan Main Peak (3,886 meters).

From Qingshui District (sea level) to Heping District's Huan-shan Tribe (1,800+ meters elevation), these 29 districts span a complete sea-to-mountain topographic cross-section. The Taichung City Government's official zoning divides them into three tiers: Coastal Line 9 districts (Da'an, Dajia, Waipu, Qingshui, Wuqi, Shalu, Longjing, Dadu, Wuri), Central Plain 14 districts (Central, East, West, South, North, Beitun, Xitun, Nantun, Fengyuan, Tanzi, Daya, Shengang, Dali, Taiping), Eastern Mountain 5 districts (Dongshi, Shigang, Xinshe, Wufeng, Heping)²¹.

Terrain determined political structure. The Coastal Line is the traditional "Black Faction" base, originating from Chen Shui-tan's 1951 Taichung County magistrate campaign when "campaign materials and name cards all used black as their signature color"²². Wufeng, Dali, Taiping are the "Red Faction" base, originating from the Wufeng Lin Family during the Japanese period; Lin Ho-nien's first Taichung County magistrate campaign used "red for publicity." Red and Black factions alternated power in Taichung County for half a century, until the 2001 incident where Yen Ching-piao, while serving as speaker, "was investigated for using public funds for hostess clubs," combined with rising DPP strength, caused "the Taichung County Red-Black confrontation and half-century of alternating factional politics to gradually fade"²².

But factions did not truly disappear. After the 2010 merger, the Coastal Line's Yen family retained legislator and councilor seats; the Wufeng Red Faction tradition reorganized under the new electoral districts. In the 24 November 2018 Taichung mayoral election, Lu Shiow-yen won 827,996 votes to Lin Chia-lung's 619,855 — a landslide of roughly 200,000 votes²³. She took the Coastal Line (traditional Blue base) + Mountain Line (Dongshi, Fengyuan) + parts of the central districts, becoming the "first female special municipality mayor of Taichung, and also the first KMT female special municipality mayor." Lu won re-election in 2022, "setting an ultra-high ceiling for Taichung mayoral elections."

One key flashpoint in the 2018 election was the Taichung World Flora Exposition, which had just opened that November. The expo was held across three park zones in Houli, Waipu, and Fengyuan, running 3 November 2018 to 24 April 2019 — 173 days total — and received A2/B1 certification from the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH)²⁴. The Lin Chia-lung administration invested NT$16.7 billion in development budget for the expo; subsequent financial controversies became a campaign centerpiece. Flowers were meant to be a municipal report card; they became an election liability.

📝 Curator's note: The fading of factional politics does not equal disappearance. Writing Taichung County's half-century of Red-Black alternation, the point is not Yen Ching-piao personally — he is merely the representative figure of the Black Faction's transformation into a modern brand. The point is that Taichung County's electoral structure was long determined by the "Red vs. Black" axis, not the national Blue-Green divide. Not until Lu Shiow-yen's 2018 sweep was this axis fully absorbed into the national Blue-Green map. But the Coastal Line's Black Faction, Wufeng's Red Faction, Dongshi's Hakka vote bank, Heping District's Atayal vote bank — each remains an identifiable sub-structure in Taichung City elections. Taichung City's political map reads like a topographic map: elevation, ethnicity, distance from the core metro area — every geographic line corresponds to a political line.

The City That Waited 123 Years

As of April 2026, Taichung City population: 2,868,452 — Taiwan's second-largest city²⁵. Second only to New Taipei's 4.01 million, exceeding the capital Taipei's 2.47 million by 390,000. Yet the "second-largest city" identity's presence in popular narrative is conspicuously thinner than its population ranking.

The gap lies in Taichung's history as the second-largest special municipality being only 16 years long. Taipei upgraded in 1967; by 2010 it had been the capital for 43 years. Kaohsiung upgraded in 1979; by 2010 it had 31 years. Tainan, Taichung, New Taipei, Taoyuan all upgraded in the 2010s. By the time Taipei and Kaohsiung had complete special-municipality governance experience, budget structures, and bureaucratic systems, Taichung was still grappling with 29-district integration issues.

Back to that October 1887: Liu Ming-chuan's petition placed the provincial capital at Qiaozaitou. If that Eight Trigrams City hadn't been halted by Shao You-lian in 1894, if the provincial capital had actually been completed, if 1895 hadn't brought cession to Japan — would this Taichung Basin have simply become Taiwan's capital? History cannot run counterfactuals, but this hypothesis adds a layer of thickness to the "Taichung nearly became the capital" narrative: Taichung was once chosen, but that city was never finished.

From 1887 to 2010 — a full 123 years. Taichung waited over a century to transform from "unfinished provincial-capital candidate" into "Taiwan's second-largest special municipality." During the wait, this city grew a non-violent anti-Japanese stronghold (1920s Central Bookstore and Chiang Wei-shui's People's Party), grew postwar Taiwan's first modernist chapel (1963 Luce Chapel), grew the first national-level art museum (1988 NTMoFA), grew the deepest Hakka wound after 921 (1999 Dongshi's 358), grew the central node of the semiconductor axis (2003 CTSP), grew the world-remembered theater (2016 Toyo Ito).

None of these were in Liu Ming-chuan's 1887 plan.

✦ "Qiaozaitou, today's Taichung City center, was Liu Ming-chuan's intended choice for the provincial capital." (Multiple historical records¹¹)

Return to Dajia Jenn Lann Temple. On the dawn of each lunar March departure, hundreds of thousands gather from Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi before the temple. Firecrackers, palanquins, devotees, media SNG trucks. From Jenn Lann Temple to Xingang Fengtian Temple and back — 9 days, 8 nights, 340 kilometers. Counting from 1730 when Lin Yong-xing brought the statue from Meizhou to Dajia, this route has been walked for 296 years; from the 1988 reroute to Xingang, 38 years; from the 2010 Ministry of Culture intangible heritage designation, 16 years — exactly the same age as Taichung's special municipality status.

Every timeline has its own length. Taichung's question was never "why did the second-largest city take so long to be seen." Taichung's answer is: in 138 years of modernization, this city has never stopped growing new layers. From the Taokas, to Qing's Qiaozaitou, to Japanese-era Taichung Prefecture, to postwar provincial city, to 2010 special municipality — each layer presses atop the previous layer's memories. 2.86 million people live in a city accumulated over 138 years.

Next time you pass through Taichung, don't just hit the sun-cake shops and Fengjia Night Market. Try this route: dawn at Dajia Jenn Lann Temple watching Mazu's incense; noon at Wufeng Guangfu Junior High's 921 Education Park walking the 340-meter fault trace; afternoon on Dadu Mountain seeing Luce Chapel's double curves; dusk at Xitun Theater's curved walls catching a performance; evening on Jiguang Street at Central Bookstore buying a book. Walk this route and you'll remember one thing: Taichung waited 123 years to become the second-largest special municipality, but it has never been absent from Taiwan's modern history.

Further Reading

• Taiwan's Musical Instrument Manufacturing Industry: Taiwanese Hands in the World's Music — Houli saxophone cluster and Wufeng music bells: precision and musical geography beyond Taichung's industry

• Keelung City — 22 counties and cities series pilot: world's 7th largest container port in 1984 fell to 113th in 2018; like Taichung, a county/city whose "administrative status was once seen then rewritten"

• Nantou County — 22 counties and cities series batch 3 sibling: the only landlocked county; 921 epicenter at its center; shares the Chelungpu Fault trauma with Taichung

• Changhua County — 22 counties and cities series batch 4 sibling: 1709 Babao Canal irrigated central Taiwan; 1786 Lin Shuang-wen incident; 1986 Lukang residents drove out DuPont; shares the Bagua Mountain central Taiwan living circle with Taichung

• Yunlin County — 22 counties and cities series batch 4 sibling: Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage passes through Xiluo, Huwei, Tuku; shares the middle segment of the same 340-kilometer Mazu route with Taichung

• Chiayi City — 22 counties and cities series batch 2 sibling: Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage terminus Xingang is in Chiayi County; the two ends of the same 340-kilometer religious route with Taichung

• Miaoli County — 22 counties and cities series batch 1 sibling: northern neighbor; inland county of Hakka stubbornness and county treasury debt; shares the central Taiwan Hakka map with Taichung's Coastal Line Qingshui and Dongshi mountain areas

• Taiwan Administrative Divisions — Complete institutional evolution: 1887 Taiwan Prefecture established in Taichung, 1920 Taichung Prefecture established, 1945 county-city separation, 2010 county-city merger and upgrade to special municipality

• Urban Characteristics and Regional Culture — Taichung as central Taiwan living circle hub: cross-county comparative context

Image Sources

This article uses 5 Wikimedia Commons CC-licensed images, hot-linked from Wikimedia upload servers:

• Hero (frontmatter): National Taichung Theater 20180317 — National Taichung Theater exterior, 2018-03-17. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Scene §The Deity in Lin Yong-xing's Home (Dajia Jenn Lann Temple): Front of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple — Front of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple, 2018-08-04. Photo: Dquai, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Scene §The Chapel on Dadu Mountain Without a Single Beam (Luce Memorial Chapel): Luce Memorial Chapel — Luce Memorial Chapel, 2021-05-16. Photo: ChiaWeiHo, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Scene §The Chelungpu Fault Tore Through Dongshi (921 Education Park): 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan 2024-09-21 — 921 Earthquake Education Park, 2024-09-21. Photo: Liu Shu-fu / Office of the President, CC BY 2.0.
• Scene §29 Districts Spanning from Sea to Mountain (Gaomei Wetlands): Gaomei Wetlands with wind turbines — Gaomei Wetlands with wind turbines, 2018-05-11. Photo: Axjun, CC BY-SA 4.0.

License terms: CC BY-SA 4.0 / CC BY 2.0.

References

1. Liu Ming-chuan — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete record of Liu Ming-chuan and Fujian-Zhejiang Governor-General Yang Chang-jun jointly petitioning in October 1887 to reorganize Taiwan's administrative divisions, selecting Changhua County's Qiaozaitu (today's Taichung City) as provincial capital, the principle "in establishing administration, terrain comes first; in governing, evenness is paramount," and the three-prefecture-one-sub-prefecture administrative system.↩²
2. History of Taichung City — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete administrative history: 1887 Liu Ming-chuan's Eight Trigrams city plan at Lanxing Fort; 1896 Taichung County established; 1901 became Taichung Sub-prefecture; 1 October 1920 Taichung Prefecture established merging Nantou Sub-prefecture; "Taichung Street and nine surrounding villages merged to form Taichung City"; 1920s non-violent anti-Japanese movement stronghold; Chiang Wei-shui's Taiwan People's Party established in Taichung.↩²³⁴⁵
3. Luce Memorial Chapel — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete record: 1956 I. M. Pei and Chen Chi-kwan collaboration; 1962 construction start; 2 November 1963 completion; commemorating missionary Henry Winters Luce; "first work through which modernist architectural vocabulary entered Taiwan"; double-curved thin-shell structure; April 2019 upgrade to national monument; Pei-Chen design credit dispute.↩²³⁴⁵
4. 921 Earthquake — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete data: 21 September 1999 01:47:15.9; Chelungpu Fault; Richter 7.3; epicenter Jiji; depth 8 km; 2,415 deaths island-wide; Taichung County 1,154 deaths, 16,861 completely collapsed, 12,341 half-collapsed; Dongshi Township 358 casualties highest; Shigang Dam fractured, spillway gates 15–18 subsided 5 meters; Nantou and Taichung County/City accounted for 95% of damaged households island-wide.↩²³⁴⁵
5. National Taichung Theater — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete engineering and design history: October 2001 Council for Cultural Affairs approval; 2005 international competition Toyo Ito first prize; 3 December 2009 groundbreaking; 23 November 2014 Ma Ying-jeou and Jason Hu completion ribbon-cutting; 30 September 2016 Vice President Chen Chien-jen opening; construction cost NT$4.36 billion; Grand Theater 2,007 seats, Middle Theater 794, Black Box 200; "using humanity's most primitive 'treehouse' and 'cave' concepts to design acoustic caves"; 58 curved walls, 79,576 custom small-dimension concrete panels.↩²³⁴
6. Dajia Xishe Anti-Qing Incident — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete historical record: 1731 (9th year of Yongzheng) Dajia Xishe headman Lin Wu-li uprising; burned Taiwan Prefecture Danshui Sub-prefect's Office; lasted seven months; Qing court mobilized over six thousand mainland troops "using barbarians to control barbarians" to suppress; largest armed anti-government uprising by Plains Indigenous peoples in Taiwan history.↩
7. Taokas — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Plains Indigenous ethnographic data: "coastal plain from Taichung City through Miaoli County to Hsinchu County" distribution; Dajia Xishe anti-Qing incident; Papora Middag Kingdom; Babuza south of Dadu River; three groups' collective migration to Puli Basin.↩
8. Dajia Jenn Lann Temple — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete temple history: 1730 (8th year of Yongzheng) Meizhou native Lin Yong-xing brought Mazu statue to Taiwan; 1732 (10th year of Yongzheng) gentry built small shrine; 1770 (35th year of Qianlong) rebuilt as Tianhou Temple; 1787 (52nd year of Qianlong) Tong Jin-ting, Chen Feng-hao, Lien Kun-shan, Qiao Hua-long and other notable donors initiated land donation for reconstruction and renaming to Jenn Lann Temple.↩²
9. Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete pilgrimage data: 9 days 8 nights; 340 km round trip on foot; crosses Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi four counties/cities; passes 100+ temples, 21 townships/districts; several hundred thousand participants annually; 2010 Council for Cultural Affairs designated national important folk custom; Discovery Channel ranked among world's three major religious events.↩²
10. Jenn Lann Temple 1988 Reroute to Xingang — Academia Sinica Cultural Resources GIS — Academia Sinica Cultural Resources GIS Jenn Lann Temple entry. Complete record of inter-temple political turning point: 1987 Meizhou ancestor worship; from 1988 pilgrimage destination changed to Xingang Fengtian Temple; "paying respects to ancestor (returning to mother temple)" vs. "exchanging incense" religious status perception divergence; "pilgrimage" nomenclature continued to present.↩
11. Shao You-lian — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete provincial capital relocation decision history: 1891 assumed Taiwan governorship; "after weighing gains and losses, pragmatically cancelled most new policy measures"; "provincial capital began construction in 1889 but after Shao You-lian assumed governorship ordered construction halted and formally moved capital to Taipei Prefecture"; 1894 First Sino-Japanese War; transferred to Hunan governorship.↩²
12. Central Bookstore — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete bookstore history: 30 June 1926 founding meeting at Drunken Moon Tower beside Taichung's Green River; 3 January 1927 official opening; Chuang Chi-sheng founder; shareholders "Lin Hsien-tang, Lin Yu-chun, Chen Hsu-ku, Chang Shen-chieh, Lai Ho, etc."; originally planned "Taiwan Cultural Association central Taiwan meeting place Central Club"; "first specialized bookstore in central Taiwan importing Chinese and Japanese books and magazines, also largest Chinese-language bookstore on the island"; 1998 closed due to financial difficulties; January 2020 Upright Goodness Humanities Foundation relaunch.↩²
13. Tunghai University — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete founding history: 11 November 1953 U.S. Vice President Nixon groundbreaking ceremony; 2 November 1955 founding dedication ceremony as anniversary date; first president Dr. James C. N. Chen; "part of American Christian overseas missionary enterprise, closely linked with U.S. aid to Asia and Cold War containment of communism"; United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia founding.↩²
14. Taichung Hakka Culture — Hakka Affairs Council Taiwan Hakka Language Survey — Executive Yuan Hakka Affairs Council Taiwan Hakka Language Survey data. Complete ethnic distribution record: Dongshi District Hakka ~80%; local vernacular Taiwan Hakka Dapu dialect; Dongshi District largest Hakka settlement in Taichung City; Shigang District late Kangxi Qing Dapu County Hakka groups migrated to cultivate; Xinshe District second largest Hakka settlement in Taichung City.↩
15. Central Cross-Island Highway Guguan Section Post-921 Closure — Directorate General of Highways — Ministry of Transportation and Communications Directorate General of Highways official record. Complete rescue record: post-921 Guguan to Techi section slope collapse >80% mileage; roadbed completely lost at 26 locations; 16 November 2018 Tongxiao section bus service restored; 2024 Executive Yuan approved Qingshan bypass reconstruction plan total cost NT$20.6 billion; estimated completion 2037.↩²
16. Chelungpu Fault — Central Geological Survey — Ministry of Economic Affairs Central Geological Survey official Chelungpu Fault data. Complete fault zone geological record: northern segment from Miaoli Zhuolan along Dajia River and Wu River basins southward, penetrating Taichung County foothills (Dongshi, Shigang, Dali, Taiping, Wufeng), southern end at Nantou Zhushan Tungtou, turning to Chiayi Zhongpu. 21 September 1999 ruptured from mid-segment Jiji Township underground extending north 100 km, traversing Taichung County townships.↩
17. Central Taiwan Science Park — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete timeline: 1999 NSC Comprehensive Environmental Analysis Study for Science Park Establishment; May 2001 Executive Yuan approved "Green Silicon Island Construction Blueprint"; 2001 Dadu Mountain and Huwei bases selected from eight candidates; 23 September 2002 Executive Yuan approved preparatory plan; "from preparatory plan approval to construction start only 10 months and 5 days"; 28 July 2003 tenant occupancy; 27 October 2004 AU Optronics mass production; 27 June 2005 Houli Park approved; 16 November 2009 Erlin Park approved.↩²³⁴⁵
18. National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts History — NTMoFA — NTMoFA official history page. Complete transformation history: June 1988 Taiwan Provincial Art Museum completed and opened; "presided over by Taiwan Provincial Governor Chiu Chuang-huan and Taiwan Provincial Government Education Department Director Chen Cho-min"; 8 February 1980 Governor Lin Yang-kang resolved to establish; 1999 post-streamlining transferred to Council for Cultural Affairs renamed "National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts" "becoming the country's first national-level art museum."↩²
19. Republic of China Administrative Divisions — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete county-city restructuring record: 25 December 2010 Taichung County-City merger, New Taipei City restructuring, Tainan County-City merger, Kaohsiung County-City merger same-day upgrade to special municipalities; Taoyuan 25 December 2014 upgrade to special municipality.↩
20. Heping District (Taichung City) — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete geographic and cultural data: Taichung City's largest district (1,038 km²); population ~10,000; Taichung City's only special municipality mountain indigenous district; Atayal northern group Sancha, Shuangqi, Daguan, Syueshan tribes; Huan-shan Tribe (Sqoyaw) upper Dajia River "largest Atayal tribe in Lishan area, 177 households, 590 people as of end-2023"; Wuling Farm elevation 1,750–2,200 m one of Taiwan's three major high-mountain farms with Cingjing and Fushoushan; Xueshan Main Peak 3,886 m trailhead.↩²
21. Taichung City Administrative Divisions — Taichung City Government — Taichung City Government official zoning data. Complete three-tier topographic administrative zoning: 29 districts; Coastal Line 9 districts (Da'an, Dajia, Waipu, Qingshui, Wuqi, Shalu, Longjing, Dadu, Wuri); Central Plain 14 districts (Central, East, West, South, North, Beitun, Xitun, Nantun, Fengyuan, Tanzi, Daya, Shengang, Dali, Taiping); Eastern Mountain 5 districts (Dongshi, Shigang, Xinshe, Wufeng, Heping).↩
22. Taichung Local Factions — TNL The News Lens — The News Lens Taiwan local factions in-depth reporting. Complete faction history: Red Faction originated from Wufeng Lin Family; Lin Ho-nien first Taichung County magistrate campaign "used red for publicity"; Black Faction Chen Shui-tan 1951 "campaign materials and name cards all used black as signature color"; Yen Ching-piao 1999 as speaker "investigated for using public funds for hostess clubs"; "Taichung County Red-Black confrontation and half-century of alternating factional politics gradually faded"; 2001 DPP strength rose.↩²
23. 2018 Republic of China Special Municipality Mayoral Elections — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete election data: 24 November 2018 Lu Shiow-yen 827,996 votes vs. Lin Chia-lung 619,855 votes, landslide ~200,000 votes; "first female Taichung special municipality mayor, also first KMT female special municipality mayor"; 2022 re-election "set ultra-high ceiling for Taichung mayoral elections."↩
24. 2018 Taichung World Flora Exposition — Wikipedia — Chinese Wikipedia entry. Complete expo period and three-zone data: 3 November 2018–24 April 2019, 173 days total; "certified by International Association of Horticultural Producers as A2/B1 international horticultural exposition"; Houli Racecourse Forest Park 30.04 hectares (Nature ecological symbiosis); Waipu Park 14.32 hectares (Green production sharing); Fengyuan Huludun Park 16.52 hectares (People cultural harmony, only free zone).↩
25. Taichung City Population Statistics — Taichung City Government Civil Affairs Bureau — Taichung City Government Civil Affairs Bureau official population statistics. April 2026 Taichung City population 2,868,452; Taiwan's second-largest city (after New Taipei's 4.01 million); 29 districts monthly statistics simultaneously updated on Wikipedia Taichung City entry latest data.↩