Taichung's Double-Decker Bus, Fact-Checked
Every guide to Taiwan’s mid-size cities says the same thing: no hop-on-hop-off bus exists, use the tourist shuttle instead. Taichung broke that pattern in 2025, and a lot of write-ups haven’t caught up.
What actually launched in 2025
Taichung’s double-decker sightseeing bus is real. It launched on April 1, 2025, run by Hwafu Tourism Group in partnership with the city’s Tourism and Travel Bureau, following trial runs through late 2024. The open-air top deck seats 40 under a retractable canopy for when the subtropical rain shows up uninvited. Audio guides run in Mandarin, English, Japanese and Korean, and the onboard wifi actually works.
The schedule is the catch
This is not a bus that shows up every ten minutes. Departures from TRA Taichung Station run three times a day: 3pm, 5pm and 8pm. Return runs from Feng Chia leave at 4pm, 7pm and 9pm. That’s the whole timetable. Treat it as a scenic late-afternoon-into-evening loop, not a hop-off-wherever pass for a full day of sightseeing.
The route itself is solid: Taichung Park, the old Prefecture Hall, the Liuchuan Riverside Walk, Calligraphy Greenway, National Taichung Theater, Maple Garden, and a finishing stop at Feng Chia Night Market. If your plan is ride the loop, hop off at the theater for photos, catch a later bus, end the night grazing at Feng Chia, this bus earns its ticket. If your plan involves five stops before lunch, it doesn’t have the frequency for that.
There’s also a dining variant: a black double-decker running reserved afternoon-tea and dinner service while it tours the city lights at night. Same fixed-schedule logic applies, book ahead.
When to use the Tourist Shuttle instead
For actual daytime legwork, the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle (Taiwan Haoxing) network does the heavy lifting the double-decker can’t. Route 11 loops the downtown museums and Yizhong Street on a schedule dense enough for real hopping-off. Route 309 runs from Taichung Station out to Gaomei Wetlands, timed for sunset arrivals. Route 153 climbs the Dajia River valley to Guguan’s hot springs. None of these run every few minutes either, but their frequency and stop count make them the actual workhorse for a day of sightseeing, with the double-decker reserved for one evening loop.
Verdict: book the double-decker for one memorable evening circuit ending at Feng Chia, not as your only transit plan for the day. Pair it with Route 309 or 153 earlier in the day for the wetlands or the mountains, covered in more depth in Taichung’s multi-day trip circuits .
One concrete tip: if you’re catching the 9pm return from Feng Chia, don’t plan an early Second Market breakfast the next morning off the back of a late night at the market. Take the 7pm return instead and you’ll actually make it out the door before the radish cake stalls sell out.