I am always on the look out for beautiful or colourful architecture when I travel as they are good for photos. But the Rainbow Village aka Cai Hong Juan Village (彩虹眷村) is not just any clutter of rainbow buildings. It is the hardwork of a very talented old veteran soldier aka the Rainbow Grandpa Huang Yung-Fu (黃永阜, 彩虹爷爷), who is also residing in one of the units in the Rainbow Village.
When Chiang Kai Shek (蔣介石) and his Chinese Nationalist Party retreated to Taiwan in the 1940s from Mainland China, these villages aka the veterans villages had been hastily built to provide simple housing to the Kuomintang soldiers, and their families. However, over the years, these villages were slowly disappearing to make way for new decent apartments for the surviving veterans or their families.
Rainbow Village in Taichung is one of these dwindling veterans villages. When the process of demolishing the village that Mr Huang was residing started, the self taught painter started to protest by filling the walls in the village with vibrant colours of animals, plants, airplanes, traditional cultural heroes, quotes…etc
Soon, the brightly coloured wall murals caught the attention of the students from Ling-Tung University (嶺東科技大學), which is located near the Rainbow Village. Pictures of the process of Rainbow Grandpa’s hardwork to preserve the veteran village that he is staying soon spread within Taichung, slowly islandwide and worldwide.
Because of Mr Huang Yung-Fu’s perseverance and efforts, the Taiwanese Government soon shelved the idea of pulling down his village.
Today, there are tourists from around the world visiting this small village. To walk around the whole village might take less than 10 minutes as most of the houses were already torn down and Mr Huang Yung-Fu’s house is one of the few houses that are left untouched.
We took uber to travel there from Taichung HSR and that cost us $85NT and the rainbow village can be reached within 10 minutes car ride. Do note that the place might be crowded so do exercise more patience while waiting for your turn to photograph the place. Besides the Rainbow Village, there is nothing much around the vicinity of much interest. But taking uber in Taichung is relatively hassle free, cheap and it is charged to your credit card account. Alternatively, you can choose to travel via the public transport available. Oh yes, the admission to Rainbow Village is free. =)
Rainbow Village
408, Taiwan, Taichung City, Nantun District, 春安路56巷
