Don’t miss the public buses in Taichung. Riding public buses is a great way to know a city, and feel its energy. Where better to take public buses than in Taichung? Some of the buses may be a bit old, and crowded, and the aircon not so great but never mind all that because the buses in Taichung are free! Yes, free. Its the only city in the world we have ever been to where the public buses are free. Even in Taiwan’s main city, Taipei, you have to pay for bus rides in Taipei.
I can not say it enough, Taichung buses are free to ride. Well at least for the first 10km, but as most of the well loved destinations would be within 10km of each other anyway, its no issue.
Get an Easycard
The first step to enjoying Taichung’s free public buses is to get an easycard. You can get the easycard from any convenience store. It cost NTD100 just for the card itself plus NTD100 deposit, so initial cost NTD200. You may want to add more cash value to it because you can also use the easycard in trains, inter-city buses, and to pay in shops.
Download the Taichung Bus App
As I described in my Taichung Survival Guide article, the Taichung Bus App is a livesaver. With this app you can plan your route, anticipate the arrival time of your bus and once on board you can track the bus you are riding to see how many more stops before your desired bus stops.
Things to know:
- The buses only stop at designated bus stops.
- To hail a bus, bring up your arm and keep it up. This is a Taichung quirk, the locals don’t wave their arms up and down like we do when hailing a bus.
- Most buses have two doors, front and rear. You can enter and exit either doors. Whenever you board and get off a bus be sure to tap your Easycard. If you don’t tap out, your card will be charged the price of the entire bus route until terminal!
- To get the bus to stop and alight, press the stop button.
- The bus stop shows you the bus numbers that stop at that particular bus stop. Using your Tachung Bus App you can find out the timing of the next bus thats coming your way.
- The app has a route planner. It can give you suggestions on what bus to take from one place to another.
- Most buses have onboard flashing tickers and audio recordings that tell the approaching bus stop. The flashing screen and audio together with your bus app will help you navigate and figure out where you are at any given moment.
Using the route planner
First you need to put in your starting point. Your starting point will by default be your current location (the app will use GPS to figure out where you are), but you can type over this the name of a place or a specific landmark as your starting point. Secondly, put in the place where you want to go. The app will then give you suggestions on the closest bus stop and how far it is, and which bus number to take. A note of caution though, some of the suggested routes are complicated or involve you walking long distances. You have to understand that the app is an algorithm not a real person and you can game it. You can play around with your starting point such as using current location or different landmarks such as a department store or park you are familiar with to get the best route.
The bus stops are named after the road where they are in for example XYZ intersection, or a building for example ABC Department Store. There will be signage that show the name of that bus stop, the buses that stop at that particular bus stop and bus routes. However, only the starting point and beginning point of the route will be in English! The middle stops will be all in Chinese. Now what? Thats where your app will come in handy.
Where it again gets a bit complicated is when you realise that bus stops on opposites sides of the road, that is buses going opposite directions, have the same descriptor. For instance you can have “Taichung Station Taiwan Boulevard” on the bus stop this side of the road, and on the opposite side is also “Taichung Station Taiwan Boulevard”. To go around this conundrum, look at the bus routes pasted on the bus stops to help you figure out if the buses on your side of the road are going in the direction you want to go.
After sometime you will get the hang of the Taichung bus system. Buses originate and end mostly at Taichung Park. Two or three stops away from Taichung Park (areas around Gancheng Station and Taichung Station) are the historic and touristic sites such as Taichung Bus Station, Taichung Railway Station, Miyahara Ice Cream and ChunShuiTang Pearl Milk Tea). Beyond Main Station is Taiwan Boulevard, the main road that will bring you to the Natural Science Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Taichung City Municipal Hall, Sogo Department Store, Mitsukoshi/Top City Department Stores and Tiger City department store. Public buses that are in the 300 series (300, 301, 302, 307 etc) ply this main route. To go to Fengjia Night Market or Chungyo Department Store from Taichung Station Taiwan Boulevard, you can check out buses 82, 201 or 901 among many others. Bus 55 is also a favourite to go to Chungyo/Night Market but its bus stop is at Minzu Road.
See more of our How to Use the Public Buses in Taichung: