Taichung’s Gaomei Wetlands are a stunning area of natural beauty famous for its wildlife, long boardwalk and stunning sunsets.
A popular thing to do in Taichung and around a 45 minute drive, bus or tour from downtown, Gaomei Wetlands is over 300 hectares and home to herons, ducks and literally tens of thousands of crabs who crawl in the mud around the boardwalks.
Popular with local birdwatchers, families and tourists, Gaomei Wetlands is a nice natural attraction in Taichung (although it can get busy at peak times). A flat walk, it is suitable for all ages and abilities (and fine to push strollers or pushchairs).
From how to get there to what to expect, here is our guide to going to Taichung’s Gaomei Wetlands.
You might like – 25+ things to do in Taichung, Taiwan >
Taiwan checklist
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For booking tours, transfers and buying SIM cards/eSIMs we recommend Klook, Get Your Guide, Viator or KK Day. You can also purchase eSIMs from Airalo.
For booking rental cars visit Discover Cars. For private drivers and taxis, check out our Transfer guide >
For more recommendations, check out our Taiwan travel booking resources page >
All set for Taiwan? Do one final check with our Taipei first timers guide and our packing list guide. Travelling with kids? Check out our Taipei For Kids eBook >
How to get to Gaomei Wetlands from Taichung
Located northwest of Taichung on the Daija River, the Gaomei Wetlands are around 25km away from the downtown Taichung area, around 45 minutes to 1 hour away depending on the traffic.
Unless you have hired a car, your Gaomei Wetlands transport options are:
- Take a taxi from downtown; expect to pay around NT$1,250 one way from downtown to Gaomei Wetlands one way. However, you are looking at a return fare of around $NT2,500 and there are two much cheaper options.
- Public buses take around 1 hour 40 minutes to 2 hours from Taichung Station and often involves changing buses – as such, we would not recommend taking public transport to Gaomei Wetlands.
- Take a tour to Gaomei Wetlands with KKDay which has various customizable activities (this is the tour we did), or book with Klook (which also includes the Rainbow Village).
We’ll go into more detail and our experiences on the KKDay Gaomei Wetlands tour we did in October 2024 shortly.
If you want to visit Taichung and the Gaomei Wetlands from Taipei, it takes less than one hour to reach Taichung on the High Speed Rail, or around 2 hours on a TRA express train from Taipei Main Station. Many of the Gaomei Wetlands tours depart from Taipei like this Klook one >
You can buy discounted Taiwan High Speed Rail one way tickets between Taipei and HSR Taichung station (plus other stations) via this Klook HSR booking link >
Please note these discounted Taiwan High Speed Rail 2024 tickets are exclusive to overseas tourists and you will need to show your passport upon redemption.
You might like – Our Taiwanderers guide to the newly reopened Rainbow Village in Taichung; is it worth it? >
Gaomei Wetlands admission fee and opening hours
Taichung’s Gaomei Wetlands are free admission and no ticket is required.
The Gaomei Wetlands themselves are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – the actual Gaomei Wetlands Visitor Center is open from 9am to 6pm every day.
Try this – Taichung tours with Viator, Get Your Guide, and Klook
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Taichung Accommodation
Ww’d highly recommend staying in Taichung for a few days (or at least) overnight as there are so many things to do in Taichung.
Mid-Range ($$)
Park City Hotel Central Taichung
Modern affordable hotel located a 10 minute walk from Taichung Train Station. Check rates and availability on booking.com, expedia.com, hotels.com and agoda.com
Luxury ($$$)
Millennium Hotel Taichung
Modern high-rise 5 star hotel. Facilities include a rooftop bar, outdoor pool, sauna and on-site restaurants. Check rates and availability on booking.com and agoda.com
Check out the best hotels in Taichung via booking.com, expedia.com, hotels.com or agoda.com
You might like – our guide to Taichung’s newest free museum, National Taiwan Museum of Comics >
Arriving at Gaomei Wetlands
The best time to visit Gaomei Wetlands is at sunset so we purposely chose a sunset tour that departed Taichung mid afternoon.
The 50 minute drive is mainly via highways and once you arrive into the Gaomei Wetland area, a vast horizon of water, wind turbines and endless skies unfolds before you.
On the edge of the Wetlands, there are a few developments which include temples, cafes, restaurants and lots of car parks. So if you need a snack before or after your wetlands walk, you’ll be fine here.
There is a huge embankment that separates the Gaomei Wetlands from the more built-up areas so the views aren’t really spoiled.
The concrete embankment and walkway is high up and this is a popular spot for walkers and local birdwatchers with their long lenses. This high up view also gives you a view of the wind turbines in the distance.
From the embankment, head past the newt-like invertebrate seats and onto the wooden boardwalk – it is from here that you really get-up close to the water and wildlife.
You might like – Our guide to Taichung’s Bugcat Capoo House plus the Taichung Station Foam Cat Cafe
Gaomei Wetlands wildlife
The glorious Gaomei Wetlands are famous for their wildlife and birdlife and it is one of the best places to see nature in the open in Taiwan.
The wetlands are home to over a hundred different species of Taiwan birds and you’ll likely see a tonne of ‘twitchers’ (birdwatchers) on your visit – we saw a lot of cranes wading in the water on our trip.
The amount of crabs at the wetlands is also astounding – as you first go on the boardwalk at low tide, you’ll quite a few larger red crabs waddling around snapping their pincers and burying into the sand.
However, the further out you go towards the water and end of the boardwalk, there are THOUSANDS of smaller crabs rolling sand into balls – it is an amazing natural site to witness; it truly is a spectacular site, especially around sunset.
Try this – Sun Moon Lake & Cingjing Farm one-day tour (Taichung City hotel pickup), or check out our guide on how to get to Sun Moon Lake from Taichung, Taipei or Alishan
Check out our Taipei neighbourhoods guides:
Beitou >
Dihua Street and Dadaocheng >
Gongguan and Longquan >
Tamsui >
Ximending >
Xinyi >
Zhongshan >
Also check out our guide to the best neighbourhoods in Taipei >
Visiting Gaomei Wetlands
To walk from the mainland to the end of the boardwalk in around 10 to 15 minutes depending on how fast you walk – what is nice is that the wooden boardwalk is flat and well maintained so it is suitable for all ages and abilities.
We saw lots of pushchairs and strollers with young children plus several wheelchairs so it is something that everyone can enjoy as a family or big group.
However there is no fence along the boardwalk so do be careful with young children (although the water didn’t look too deep at sunset which coincided with low tide).
At the end of the boardwalk, you can take off your shoes / sandals and go for a paddle in the water – we visited in Autumn on a 30°c day and the water was quite mild.
Remember to bring a towel if you need to dry your feet afterwards! The water is shallow in the evening and many people waded out quite far.
We’d recommend going to Gaomei Wetlands for sunset which in our case was around 5.30pm (later in the summer months).
You might like – Our guide to the Shen’ao Rail Bike and the nearby Capybara Rock (yes, there is a rock shaped like a capybara in Taiwan!)
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Gaomei Wetlands KKDay Tour
As mentioned, we did a Gaomei Wetlands sunset tour with KKDay whereby we got picked up at the famous Miyahara dessert shop in downtown Taichung and driven to the Wetlands in a private mini-van.
We chose the tour option as taking a return taxi for two of us worked out to be several times more expensive than the tour, plus we didn’t fancy a four hour round trip on Taichung public transport.
Our experience on the Gaomei Wetlands sunset tour on KKDay was generally good. We departed on time, the minivan was very clean and modern and the Taiwan driver used an audio translation app to explain what was happening to us in English plus in Korean for other group members.
We left Miyahara at 3.30pm (the pick up time is later in summer), and got to spend around 90 minutes at the Gaomei Wetlands (which is plenty of time) before being taken back into the city and dropped off at the Feng Chia Night Market (highly recommended and one of the best Taiwan night markets we’ve been to.
It was good value for money and effectively you are just paying for the minivan as the driver just takes you to and from the Wetlands.
The only slight downside is that the communication before the tour wasn’t great.
The website said the tour company would contact us the day before to confirm if the booking was going ahead or not, but we never heard anything other than getting a KKDay email voucher the morning of the tour. But once we turned up on the day, everything was fine.
You might like – Things to do in Sun Moon Lake >
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Other things to know about Gaomei Wetlands
- No smoking or drone usage is permitted in the Gaomei Wetlands – vehicles on the boardwalks are forbidden too.
- Free toilets are available in most of the car-parks.
- Bring a towel with you if you want to paddle in the water.
Address
Gaomei Wetlands, Meidi Street, Qingshui District, Taichung City, 436
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