Heritage Day Weekend, and Taichung's Old Town Any Other Day

Once a year, Taiwan holds a heritage weekend where buildings that are normally locked open their doors for two days. The main programme happens in Taichung this year, at a cultural heritage park on the south side of the city. It is worth going.

But it is also worth knowing that the old town, a fifteen-minute walk from Taichung Station, works the other way around. The old buildings there are not waiting for a special weekend. Their doors are open most days, because someone inside is selling noodles, or hardware, or cutting keys.

So the question here is never whether you can go in. It is whether you look up. Ground floors get renovated constantly — new signage, new tenant, new paint. The second and third floors usually do not. Walking is roughly the right speed to notice the gap. On a scooter you miss it entirely.