"Why Taiwan's First Radio Station Was in Taichung, Not Taipei"
On March 22, 1935, Taiwan's first radio broadcast went out from Taichung — not Taipei. Local business leaders lobbied hard, and the city's sugar industry gave them leverage. The original building still stands, 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 the capital to the radio.
Why Taiwan's First Radio Broadcast Came from Taichung, Not Taipei
On March 22, 1935, the station JTTK went live from a wooden building in central Taichung. It was Taiwan's first radio broadcasting station. Not in Taipei, the colonial capital. Taichung.
That's the detail that stops you. 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 first broadcast station, not the capital. And they won.
The building where it happened still stands at No. 43, Gongyuan Road, in Taichung's Central District, right beside Taichung Park. It's a low, wooden Japanese-style structure — original, not reconstructed — now operating as a cultural venue open to the public. There's no English signage inside, so bring Google Translate on your phone. But you don't need much language to understand what you're looking at: this is the room where Taiwan first heard itself on the radio.
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. 43 Gongyuan Rd. 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, and the park itself is a decent place to sit for a bit.
All four sites sit within a walkable 15-minute radius. The whole loop — broadcasting station, city hall, prefecture hall, park pavilion — takes about three to four hours if you're moving at a browsing pace.
Getting there: Taichung HSR Station is a 20-minute bus or taxi ride from the Central District. The MRT Green Line (Wenxin 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. Taichung's weather is generally mild, but the city does get hot in summer — morning visits are more comfortable from June through September.
