When the scenery changes from rice fields to flower fields, you have arrived the hometown of flowers - Tianwei Township. It is the largest flower production area and planting sales center in Taiwan. More than 140 gardening shops and landscape gardens in the area makes it a super flower expo at all seasons.
Tianwei has a long development history of floriculture and horticulture industries. The attraction of Highway Garden floricultural sightseeing area, established in 1973, was designated as a recreational agricultural area with a total area of nearly 297 hectares by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan in 2021, covering Dalian Village, Xipan Village, Tianwei Village, Liufeng Village, and Fengtian Village. There are more than 140 gardening shops spread across the area, along the 3.6-kilometer path of the commercial district and the 4.2-kilometer route with flower and seeding fields around. In addition, there is a 7.2-kilometer starlight bicycle path that goes deep into the flower fields, making Tianwei Highway Garden famous in Taiwan. In recent years, diversified business models have been injected thanks to the development of the tourism industry and the home-returning youth.【林世清/拍攝】
Tianwei Township Visitor Center provides travel information and professional guides. Moreover, an inclusive playground was built in the Yihsin Garden (怡心園) in Tianwei Township by the Department of City and Tourism Development of Changhua County. Yihsin Garden was reopened to the public in 2024 to provide a diversified parent-child experiences. Parking lots and tandem tricycle/electric bicycle rental shops are available for tourists to use for flower town roaming.
Tianwei Highway Garden mainly develops along not only the circular Gongyuan Road section 1 and 2, and Gongyuan East Road, but also Minsheng Road and Minzu Road in north-south and east-west direction. Each gardening shop has every kind of plants, including flowering plants, foliage plants, succulents and spore plants. Shops specialize in unique categories, such as succulents, ferns, orchids, potted plants and aquatic plants, are also available. The rare species they have are something that worthy admiration.
Many of them also offer catering services, such as floral and herbal cuisine. In addition, some also set up parent-child classrooms and DIY courses to promote the life aesthetic with captivating plant life and to provide the opportunity to enjoy the fun of creation.
Among them, more and more shops design the industrial park into forest-type landscape gardens and make them popular check-in attractions. They combine characteristic planting with buildings or recreational facilities to attract tourists, such as giant cactus, bald cypress combined with water features, madagascar almond path and romantic sea of roses, giving full play to creativity to stand at the forefront of gardening to lead new trends.
Wandering along the country roads of Tianwei, you can see more and more houses with elegant layout, showing a visual feast called "Hunting for Elegant Houses (雅舍尋奇)". More than 20 B&Bs are available in the Tianwei Recreational Agricultural Area for tourists to stay for deep traveling.
The beauty and richness of Tianwei, for example, the early morning when flower farmers harvesting and the night scenery, are unique. "chrysanthemum cultivation under grow lights (燈照菊)" is a representative feature of the Highway Garden. The chrysanthemum field covers an area of 120 hectares and produces 40 million chrysanthemums annually. From October to December every year, flower farmers use grow lights to adjust the production period, making Tianwei a spectacular ever-bright city. Tianwei is the largest area for floriculture industry in Taiwan, which produces different cut flowers every month, enabling the charm of the flower town be renewed frequently.
任台生/拍攝
【鄧志隆/拍攝】
