On my trip to Taiwan in 2016, I stumbled across a very colorful place called Rainbow Village.
Rainbow Village is one of the most astonishing Taichung attractions. It is painted by a very talented and visionary, old veteran soldier. Taiwan is still scattered with so-called “veterans villages“. Such tweedy villages had been built hastily, with very cheap materials. They provided a simple way of housing to the Kuomintang soldiers, and their families, after their retreat from Mainland China. These villages disapperead in the last twenty years, one by one. The government gave the land to construction companies, providing in exchange new places to live to the surviving veterans or their families (cf. https://www.taichung.guide/rainbow-village-caihongjuan-village/).
Rainbow Village situated in Taichung, Taiwan is one of these veterans villages. As it was already being torn down house by house one of the last remaining village residents is Mr.Huang who decided one day to paint the empty and dying village. He painted animals, dolls, characters with vibrant colors, filling the little alleys and the walls. Some students of the nearby Ling Tung University discovered the paintings, a few years ago. Rainbow Village started to attract attention, at first only in Taichung, then island wide. After protests of the locals, and also realizing that the village was developing to one of the attractions in Taichung City, the local government decided to suspend the demolition (cf. https://www.taichung.guide/rainbow-village-caihongjuan-village/).
The village caught my attention as I browsed through TripAdvisor To Do suggestions.
Here are some photos of my visit to this little village:
