Shin Sei Green Waterway (新盛綠川水岸廊道) @ Taichung City in Taiwan

Once a canal that's now converted into a relaxing oasis, Shin Sei Green Waterway felt detached from the bustle flanked by two busy streets called Luchuan East Street and Luchuan West Street.

Formerly known as the Xinsheng River, it was said to be heavily polluted until a revitalization project changed it into an ecological park! Frankly, I didn't keep a lookout back in 2014, when I first visited Taichung City.

Knowing Taiwan, there would not be any lack of creativity to make this waterway stand out, with decorative features that eliminates or reduces the boredom one might experience with yet another park.

Maybe due to the cool weather or maybe due to the timing; I did notice that the waterway was well-used by residents, and not a white elephant as with the case in some places. However, users appeared to be non-Taiwanese. 

Turned out the waterway was near to ASEAN Square, which was popular with migrants from Southeast Asian countries! Gosh, I didn't know about it and this explained why there were so many eateries selling ASEAN cuisines in the area.

More photos!

Water was so clean that I could vividly see the fishes swimming! 

How come our Singapore River can't have such clarity?! 

According to the above, 24,000 tons of sewage were treated daily and one filtration method used to clean them was the use of stones / pebbles! 

Shhhh, someone was already sleeping at the underground passage alongside the waterway. Looked like a homeless chap although I am more surprised that he was sleeping so early; it's only about 5.13pm! 

Was it the sunset or was it the environment? I was alone (Alex decided to rest in the hotel room) yet I was totally at peace here as I walked along the 422-meter pavement alongside the waterway.

With the sound of cascading mini-waterfalls. 

Information panels were also placed to explain more about waterway and its importance for flood control, without any English text. Now, I am okay with reading Chinese characters but some terminology is literally lost on me. 

Look at all the fishes! 

For a moment, I thought this was a real tortoise.

Turned out to be decorative.

No more pavement.

Yet the flowers by the slopes flanking the waterway still managed to cheer me up. There's just something about the vividness in flowers that had that magical reach to soothe the soul.

And what bird was this?! Let's use Google Image. Okay, supposed to be a black-crowned Night Heron and it's supposedly quite common in Singapore too. Damn, I am obviously not that observant.

Loving the designed manhole covers!

Why don't we have something like this in Singapore. 

=====

Address

In between Luchuan East and West Streets,

Central District, Taichung City, Taiwan

Map

As above.

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)