Taichung was founded in 1705 under the Qing Dynasty with the name Dadun — meaning "large mound" — as part of Changhua County. Over the following century and a half it experienced Indigenous revolts, armed rebellions, and the constant friction of a colonial frontier. In 1885, when Taiwan became a province of Qing China, the city briefly served as the provincial capital before losing that status when the imperial court forced Liu Mung-chuan from power. Then came the Japanese, in 1895, who renamed the city Taichū and set about making it their model of a modern Taiwanese city. They built parks, a railway, government halls, schools, and a market. When World War II ended in 1945 and the Kuomintang government relocated to Taiwan, Taichung absorbed another wave of change. In 2010, the city and surrounding Taichung County merged into a single special municipality of approximately 2.65 million people — Taiwan's second largest. Each era left something behind. The city is a palimpsest.

Walk west from Taichung Station and the Japanese-era city reveals itself in stone. The Taichung Prefectural Hall, built in 1913 and expanded through 1934, anchors one end of the historic precinct — a Baroque-style building with a mansard roof and a corner entrance, now a national historic monument. A short walk away stands the Taichung Shiyakusho, built in 1911, now home to Café 1911 on its ground floor and an art centre above. Taichung Park, the oldest in the city, was established in 1903; its twin lakeside pavilions were built in 1908 to mark the opening of the Crossway Railway. These buildings and spaces were not accidents. They were the deliberate infrastructure of a colonial administration that wanted Taichung to look like a city worth governing. A century later, they are the most atmospheric parts of town.

People who live in Taichung often compare the weather to California, and the comparison holds better than most city-to-city analogies do. The subtropical monsoon climate gives the city long stretches of sunny, dry days outside the summer months. From October through May, north winds bring cool, dry air. Summers run hot and humid — average daytime temperatures push well above 30°C, and the humidity makes the real-feel temperature higher still. The city sits in a basin, which reduces typhoon exposure but traps air pollution; on still winter days the haze can be significant. In spring and autumn, though, the light is clear and warm, the air moves, and the hills east of the city glow green. Those are the months that make the California comparison feel earned.

Fengjia Night Market, clustered around the streets near Feng Chia University in the western part of the city, is one of the most visited night markets in Taiwan. The scale of it is hard to convey before you arrive: thousands of people, hundreds of vendors, an entire economy of snacks, clothes, accessories, and handmade goods compressed into a few blocks. Yizhong Street Night Market, in the North District near Taichung Park, serves a younger crowd and draws students from the nearby schools. Both markets are less about any single thing to eat or buy and more about the texture of being in a Taiwanese city at night — the noise, the heat, the smells of grilled meat and bubble tea, the particular pleasure of walking slowly through a crowd with nowhere specific to be.

Taichung International Airport (RCMQ), on Dadu Mountain west of the city, handles regional and some international traffic, though the airport's connections are limited compared to Taipei. Most long-distance travellers arrive by Taiwan High Speed Rail at the Taichung HSR Station in Wuri District, then transfer to the local Taiwan Railway or the Taichung Metro — the Green Line, the city's first metro line, which opened in 2021 and connects the HSR station to parts of western downtown. The Metro is clean and comfortable but thin on coverage for now; a Blue Line is under construction with an expected completion in 2034. Until then, buses and the YouBike bicycle share system fill most of the gaps. The city has 275 bus routes spread across 29 districts. It is navigable, but navigation takes patience. The compact historic core is walkable on foot once you are in it.