Serving as one of Taichung's prominent landmarks, the National Museum of Natural Science was completed during the late 1980's. It has since grown to include the attached Botanical Gardens and the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan. The National Museum of Natural Science provides a great way of spending the day by yourself or with your family. Take the time to peruse the over 30 permanent exhibits that cover a wide range of subject matter. Spanning 22 acres, the National Museum of Natural Science has six distinct areas of focus:

The Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, built in 1980, is dedicated to, and therefore named in honor of Taiwan's former president. It is an enormous white marble building and blue glass roof tiles. The memorial hall is flanked by the National Theater and the National Concert Hall. Beautiful flower gardens are also located in the surrounding areas. Many of the flowers are red. The red flowers, white building and blue roof represent the colors found on Taiwan's flag. There is also a large public square that leads up to the memorial building.

The concept of 'yin' and 'yang' underscores both modern and traditional schools of thought in Taiwan. And since the number '9' is considered to be charged with positive yang, it is believed that on the ninth day of the Ninth Lunar Month, yin and yang are greatly out of balance. This in turn could lead to misfortune.

Tomb Sweeping Day or 清明節 (Qingmíng Jíe) is a national holiday in Taiwan. It in not tied to the Lunar or Solar calendars, rather it falls 15 days after the vernal equinox; usually between April 4th and 6th.

Tomb Sweeping Day is a day of worshiping the dead; families return to the graves of their ancestors to pay respects and to clean their tombs. Offerings of wine, fruit, vegetables and cake are placed before the grave and on the surrounding soil. Other offerings include chives, eggs, squid, sweet rice, taro and bamboo shoots.

Established in the early 90's, Fingas has gone through a series of expansions and contractions to become one of Taichung's most popular western restaurants. Friendly service in both English and Chinese ensures that Fingas will be around for years to come. Their current location offers a dining area, an ice cream bar and a deli counter. An open-air patio is located at the back of the restaurant.

IKEA is set to move to Taichung. It is tentatively scheduled to open by the end of 2013.

IKEA has started construction on Da Dun 11^th Street where the old flower market used to be. It is located near the Wen Xin Forest Park, just off Wen Xin Rd in Taichung's Nantun District. Taichung's IKEA is purportedly going to be Taiwan's largest IKEA store.