Rainbow village is instagram paradise. If you don’t know yet, Rainbow Village is a cluster of houses in Taichung covered in cartoonish drawings of dogs, cats, chickens, birds, bunnies, people, pineapples, flowers and characters on bright swatches of red and blue backgrounds. Its not technically a village, since there are less than 10 buildings adjacent to each other and you can see the whole place in 5 minutes tops…if you don’t take any pictures that is. The paintings are colourful, quirky and evoke childlike wonder made even more surprising when you realise that the painter is no spring chicken himself.
As the story goes, Grandpa Huang, a former soldier and security guard who lived in the military housing complex, started painting his and his neighbors’ houses to give the area some spot of colour and life in 2010 when he was already 86 years old! The colourful houses inspired the students of the nearby university to petition to protect the former military housing complex from being torn down and replaced by condos. The rest is instagram history as today, millions of people visit Rainbow Village every year for the endless photo ops available.
If you are lucky, you may even get to meet Grandpa Huang as he still makes an appearance once in a while. We actually have the good fortune of seeing Grandpa on the day we visited but he looked so frail now we did not have the heart to disturb him.
Rainbow Village opens at 9:00 am and closes at 6:00 pm. The best time to visit is at 4:30 – 5:00ish in the afternoon when the sun is near setting and there are no shadows within the building complex. You won’t bake in the hot Taichung sun and the lighting at this time of the day is great. If you get there around 5, you will still have a good hour of scrambling for spots for great photos. Just be prepared for the crowds as it’s a really popular attraction. Its free to enter but do be respectful and keep the noise down as people still live in the houses, and if you can buy a souvenir or some food or drink to support the place, why not?
How to go to Rainbow Village using Public Bus?
You can get to Rainbow Village from Taichung City by first heading to the Taichung High Speed Rail Station. At the ground level of the station is a bus station. From the Taichung High Speed Rail Station, take buses that go to the nearby Lingtung University such as buses 70, 26, 800, 617, 56 or 74 (do note that buses 56 and 74’s stop is not in the HSR but located opposite the Xinwuri TRA Station which is adjacent to the HSR). These buses stop right across the Rainbow Village. Rainbow Village is about 15 minutes away from the HSR station.
Alternatively, you may also take bus 56 from Gancheng Station in downtown Taichung which heads the opposite way. Bus 56 terminates at the Xinwuri TRA station. However this bus runs only once every 30 minutes. Travel time from Taichung City to Rainbow Village by bus takes about 1 hour.
Rainbow Village is located in western Taichung. There is nothing in the area to see except Lingtung University and the Taichung High Speed Rail Station. The closest mall is Ikea so you may have a late lunch in Ikea then head to Rainbow Village. Given its proximity to the High Speed Rail, you may schedule your visit to the Rainbow Village around the time you arrive or depart Taichung City. You may leave your luggage inside the paid lockers in the station.
On weekends bus 655 run between Lingtung University and Gaomei Wetlands. If you finish early in Rainbow Village you could squeeze in Gaomei wetlands’ sunset. Journey time is 1 hour.
Do make time to visit Rainbow Village. Its not a large area but the place and its story is inspiring. Its how a single man can make a difference, how creativity knows no age, how joy abounds in unexpected places, and and of course how instagram can draw crowds.
Rainbow Village address: 408 Taiwan, Taichung City, Nantun District
See more of our how to use the public buses in Taichung series: