Get to know Central District
Photo adjustments
Full-frame source proportionally resized and converted to WebP for display. No subject alteration. Source-supplied marks and edits remain; cards may crop the view.
- Administrative area
- District · 區
- Part of
- Taichung City
- Chinese name
- 中區
- Local areas
- District guide
Area & population
- Area in the source
- 0.88 km²
Source: cited geographic source, as of the dates shown.
A changing market
The Second Market was established in 1917 as the earlier market became insufficient for local needs. It served nearby Japanese residential and commercial areas, selling imported goods as well as everyday necessities. Fish, vegetables, fruit and meat were later wholesaled here. The hexagonal pavilion’s square became a fruit-trading space before that wholesale function moved elsewhere.
Market dishes
The market’s food includes meatballs (肉丸), black tea (紅茶), radish cake (菜頭粿), braised pork rice (滷肉飯), Fuzhou yi noodles (福州意麵) and rice-noodle-and-meat-dumpling soup (米苔目肉圓湯). Radish cake is made from white radish and rice batter; its familiar English label “turnip cake” does not describe the vegetable used.
Sources for this guide
新作坊 · Humanity Innovation and Social Practice Project
第二市場-童樂Q臺中 · Education Bureau of Taichung City Government
Original English written from the listed sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer. Updated 2026-09-27.
Explore Central District
Core places to explore, with English and Chinese names.
Places to explore around Central District
Plan your visit
Getting there
Central District covers the centre of Taichung City. Search for 中區 in a map app to find stations and your accommodation.
Where to stay →Build your route
Start with Taichung Old Town and Second Market. The linked place guides have entrance and visit details.
Continue with Taichung City →More in Taichung City
Sources & geographic information
Administrative names and parent areas: Official geographic directory · Reference date 2026-09-06.
Photo: Taichung Old Town and Second Market · Fcuk1203 · CC BY-SA 3.0. Full-frame source proportionally resized and converted to WebP for display. No subject alteration. Source-supplied marks and edits remain; cards may crop the view.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Pins mark approximate centres, not entrances or boundaries.