"Why Taiwan's Third Radio Station Went to Taichung, Not a Bigger City"
On May 11, 1935, Taiwan's third radio broadcast station — JFCK — went live from Taichung, not from Taipei or any other major city. Local business leaders lobbied hard, and the city's sugar industry gave them leverage. The original building still stands on Diàntái Street, a short walk from the 1911 Tatsuno-style City Hall where you can now eat Italian food inside a colonial-era landmark.
Taiwan is a small island nation in East Asia — not part of China — and its second-largest city, Taichung, sits about 1.5 hours south of Taipei by high-speed rail. If you know Taichung at all, you probably know it for bubble tea (the drink was invented here) or the night markets. You almost certainly don't know it as the city that beat Kaohsiung, Keelung, and every other city in central Taiwan to get the island's third radio station.
Why Taiwan's Third Radio Station Ended Up in Taichung
Taipei got its station in 1928. Tainan followed in 1932. When the question came up of where to put a third one, the obvious answer might have been Kaohsiung — a major port city in the south. Instead, on May 11, 1935, station JFCK went on air from Taichung.
Why here?
In the 1930s, Taichung was running on sugar and textiles. The sugar industry especially had made the city genuinely wealthy — not wealthy in a provincial, second-tier kind of way, but wealthy enough that local business leaders had real pull with the Japanese colonial administration. They lobbied. They pushed the case that Taichung deserved the next broadcast station, arguing that it sat at the center of a vast rural listenership that needed access to information. And they won.
Twenty days before the station opened, on April 21, 1935, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck central Taiwan — the deadliest in the island's recorded history, killing over 3,000 people. JFCK went on air on May 11, broadcasting into a region that was still clearing rubble. The case they'd made for a station — to carry information to rural communities across central Taiwan — turned immediately real.
The Building: Not What You'd Expect
The station building still stands at No. 1, Diàntái Street (電台街) in Taichung's Central District. The entire street has only one address: this building is the whole street. It's about a 10-minute walk from Taichung Park; searching "台中放送局" in Google Maps is the most reliable way to find it.
The building is not what most people picture when they imagine a Japanese colonial structure. There's no wooden screen doors or tatami aesthetic here. Instead: a large semi-circular arched entrance, tall narrow windows, battlemented parapets like castle walls, and a central cylindrical tower. The style is classified as eclectic — somewhere between Romanesque and Gothic — and it looks considerably more like a small European castle than anything you'd associate with Japan. The roof uses a wooden truss structure, portions of which had to be repaired after the 1999 earthquake.
Inside, the space operates as a broadcasting heritage museum, free to enter. The entry floor still has the original hand-painted Japanese colonial tiles. The interior has its original terrazzo flooring. One floor, roughly 500 square meters, with 68 windows of different shapes — arched, rectangular — that flood the space with natural light. The exhibit highlight is a 1940s wire recorder; when staff are around, they'll play recordings from the era. There's also an interactive station where you can record your voice into a small glass bottle to take home. Signage is in Chinese only; no English guide materials are available on site.
Opening hours: 10:00–18:00, closed Mondays.
Having Pasta Inside a 1911 Japanese Colonial Building
From the broadcasting station, walk about ten minutes west and you'll hit Taichung's former City Hall — officially called 台中市役所, built in 1911.
The architectural style is Tatsuno-style Western eclectic, named after the Japanese architect Tatsuno Kingo, whose school also designed Tokyo Station. The family resemblance is obvious once you know to look for it: red brick, white stone detailing, a symmetrical facade that manages to feel both serious and ornate. The building is now the Taichung Cultural Heritage Museum (台中文資館).
Here's the part that takes a second to process: the ground floor has an Italian restaurant in it.
Narratore serves pasta and aperitivo inside the original colonial-era interior. The architecture is preserved — you're eating under ceilings and beside columns that have been there since before Taiwan was ever anything other than Japanese territory. Entry to the building is free; you only pay if you eat. Main dishes run NT$300–600 per plate (roughly $9–19 USD), which is mid-range for Taichung. Worth it for the setting alone.
Walking Route & Practical Info
This is a comfortable half-day loop through the Central District. No cars needed.
Start: Taichung Broadcasting Station (台中放送局), No. 1 Diàntái Street. Walk the building and the small grounds. Plan 30–45 minutes.
10 minutes on foot: Taichung City Hall / Cultural Heritage Museum (台中文資館). Free to browse. Have lunch or a coffee at Narratore if you're there midday.
From the City Hall, two short detours worth adding:
- Taichung Prefecture Hall (台中州廳, 1913) — Baroque classical style, about a 5-minute walk. Still in active government use, so access is limited, but the exterior is worth seeing.
- Taichung Park's Lakeside Pavilion (湖心亭, 1908) — Built in anticipation of Emperor Meiji's planned visit to Taiwan (he never made it). One of the best-preserved colonial lakeside pavilions on the island.
All four sites sit within a walkable 15-minute radius. The whole loop takes about two to three hours.
Getting there: Taichung HSR Station is a 20-minute bus or taxi ride from the Central District. The MRT Green Line doesn't reach this area yet, so a taxi or ride-share from downtown Taichung is your easiest option (NT$150–200).
Best time to go: Weekday mornings are quieter. The park gets busy on weekend afternoons.
