Tainan is, without a doubt, the historic, cultural and culinary capital of Taiwan. Sure, one could argue that there are other areas of Taiwan where you’ll find an incredible amount of history - and Taipei has more or less been the capital since the 1900s - but as Taiwan’s oldest developed region, the southern city of Tainan is the place where the people of Taiwan are most likely to visit to enjoy and learn more about the nation’s history.
For those of you unaware, you’re note likely to find many regions of Taiwan where you can experience history spanning from Taiwan’s period of Dutch occupation, the short-lived Kingdom of Tungning, Qing rule, the Japanese Colonial Period, and the modern era, but Tainan encapsulates it all.
Traveling through Tainan, you’ll get to experience so many historic buildings, temples, shops, etc. Every street and alley has something to offer, and if you’re just walking around the city, you might find yourself swept away with all of the quaint alleys, where you’ll find places of worship that are hundreds of years old hidden from the busy streets. Personally, I’m a big fan of touring Tainan’s temples. The experience you’ll have in the places of worship there is noticeably different than what you’ll most often see up here in northern Taiwan.
Sometimes, though, especially if you’ve been to the city as many times as I have, you may want to experience something a little different. Fortunately, even though Tainan is a historic city, it’s also a modern one, and it’s also nestled between the mountains and the coast, so you can rest assured that there is more to do there than just touring old buildings.
For anyone who might grow weary of exploring the city’s historic buildings, never fear, Tainan is also home to one of Taiwan’s largest National Parks, Taijiang National Park (台江國家公園), which spans much of the Tainan coast. Within the park, you’ll find beautiful beaches, protected wetlands, salt fields, massive temples, and given that its Tainan, there are also a number of historic sites to check out as well.
Today, I’m going to be introducing one of the most popular tourist attractions within the National Park, an absolutely beautiful mangrove that you get to experience by way of boat tour. Known as the ‘Sicao Green Tunnel’ (四草綠色隧道), this is yet another example of the ‘nature tunnels’ (綠色隧道) that have in recent years become quite popular in Taiwan, but it also just so happens to be the only one located within a mangrove, while the others are typically experienced on bicycle.
The tunnel itself is just a small section of the Sicao Wetlands (四草濕地), one of the most important wetland parks in Taiwan, so a tour of the mangrove can be part of a much longer day trip to the area where you can experience a different aspect of Tainan, while also being able to celebrate and learn about the area’s history.
Today, I’ll start by offering a bit of information about the Taijiang National Park, then introduce the mangrove, and finish by providing information about the tour, and how to get there. I’ll also address some of the criticisms and concerns that other travel writers have about the tour, some of which are quite valid, but shouldn’t really prevent you from going on the tour, which is an absolutely beautiful experience
Taijiang National Park (台江國家公園)
As a subtropical island nation, Taiwan is home to a wide variety of diverse ecosystems at sea, on its coastline and in its high mountain forests. The warm climate, in addition to the abundance of rain and rivers that flow from the mountains to the ocean, makes for an especially rich environment suitable for wetland ecosystems.
There are so many wetlands in Taiwan that it’s difficult to keep track of them all, but it goes without saying that their importance to the ecosystem cannot be understated. Taiwan’s environment thrives in the way it does in many parts thanks to its coastal wetlands. Not only are the wetlands home to rich biodiversity, they are considered “biological supermarkets”, which are instrumental in helping to clean up the water supply, preventing shoreline erosion, storing flood waters, etc.
Generally speaking, wetlands provide beneficial services for wildlife and humans alike, but more importantly, help to care care of the tremendous task of cleaning up the mess that we’ve caused. Sadly, though, due to the pervasive threat of climate change, over-development, and pollution, the health of Taiwan’s wetland ecosystems is constantly under threat. Fortunately, this is a situation that the Taiwanese government takes seriously, and since 2007, an increasing number of “protected” wetland areas have been established around the country. Of the over one-hundred (currently established) wetland reserves, two have been classified as “International Level” (國際級濕地), fifty-one “National Level” (國家級濕地), forty “Local Level” (地方級濕地) and seven are “Provisional Local Level” (未定濕地), comprising a total of 56,860 hectares of land.
To assist in further identifying the status of those various wetlands, within each group you’ll find sub-divisions, which differentiate each of them based on their level of protection and ecological importance. These sub-divisions are classified as “core conservation”, “ecological restoration”, “environmental education” and “management services” (人工濕地). The usage of these classifications have proven instrumental in allowing the government to restrict access to certain protected wetlands on public lands, in addition to being able to issue hefty fines to those who infringe upon their conservation progress.
Links: Wetland Conservation Act takes effect in Taiwan | 台灣濕地列表
Since the Wetland Conservation Act came into effect effect in 2013, several of these protected wetland areas have opened up for a new kind of eco-tourism, where people get to enjoy the natural environment in ways that are not only sustainable, but also helps educate them about how these habitats are instrumental to the health of the nation.
In the past, I’ve written about the Xiangshan Wetlands (香山溼地) in Hsinchu, and the Gaomei Wetlands (高美濕地) in Taichung, both of which have become quite popular with both local and international tourists. Today, I’ll be introducing another one of those popular wetland tourist destinations, located within the expansive, and somewhat recently established Taijiang National Park (台江國家公園) in Tainan.
Established in 2009, Taijiang National Park is a protected coastal eco-park that includes lands stretching from the Yanshui River (鹽水溪) to the Zengwen River (曾文溪), encompassing a total area of 39,310 hectares of public land. The mission of the park is to protect the area’s biodiversity, which includes tidal flats (潮灘), sandbars (沙洲), sand spits (沙嘴), lagoons (潟湖), mangroves (紅樹林) and wetlands (濕地), all of which combined are critical habitats for rare fish, crustaceans and mammal and bird species, including the endangered black-faced spoonbill.
Similarly, the park’s staff are also tasked with providing opportunities for recreation, and to help educate the general public about the importance of preserving these ecosystems, which are of both historic importance, and essential for future generations of Taiwanese.
Link: Taijiang National Park Website | 台江國家公園管理處 (中文版)
Within the park, there are four different wetland conservation areas, including the Zengwen River Wetlands (曾文溪口濕地), the Sicao Wetlands (四草濕地), the Qigu Salt Fields Wetlands (七股鹽田濕地), and the Yanshui River Wetlands (鹽水溪口濕地). It’s also quite significant to note that of the one hundred wetland preservation areas around Taiwan, two of the wetlands mentioned above have been designated as ‘International Level Wetlands’ (國際級濕地), and are coincidentally the only two wetland spaces in Taiwan that have received such a ranking. This should give you a pretty good indication of how important it was that the Taijiang National Park was established.
The wetlands in Taijiang National Park have become quite popular since the establishment of the park, and thanks to the facilities that have been set up for the public, it has also become one of the best bird-watching areas in Taiwan. If you look at the park’s official website, one of the things you’ll notice right away is that they have documented and recorded how many Black-Faced Spoonbills (黑脸琵鹭) are currently residing in the area, and they have set up some pretty great locations where bird-watchers can set up their cameras to photograph the beautiful birds.
Similarly, the area is also home to Milkfish (虱目魚), Formosan Fiddler Crabs (台湾招潮蟹), Great Blue Spotted Mudskippers (大彈塗魚), Pied Avocets (反嘴鹬), Soldier Crabs (短指和尚蟹), Black-Winged Stilts (高蹺鴴), Cardisoma carnifex crabs (凶狠圆轴蟹), and those noisy Taiwanese Twilight Cicadas (北埔蟬).
Even though the topic of today’s article is the Sicao Mangrove Tunnel, visiting Taijiang National Park is an excellent experience, and there’s quite a bit to do. So, if you’re planning a visit to the Tainan area, I highly recommend checking out the park’s official page linked above where they offer several tour itineraries that help visitors better understand the area!
Sicao Green Tunnel (四草紅樹林綠色隧道)
As mentioned above, Taiwan is currently home to two wetland preservation areas that have been designated as International Level Wetland Parks, and the area I’m going to be introducing today is just a small portion of one of those parks, and coincidentally just so happens to also be one of the top tourist attractions in Tainan as well!
Composing just over 523 hectares of land within Taijiang National Park, the Sicao Wetlands (四草濕地) are not only home to the popular tourist mangrove tunnel, but they’re also part of the Sicao Wildlife Sanctuary (四草野生動物保護區), which was established in 2004. The wetlands are an important habitat for some of the migratory birds mentioned earlier, and they’re also a key breeding ground as well.
Official estimates from the park state that the Sicao Wetlands are home to over 160 bird species, with migratory birds accounting for about 75% of that number. What makes the preservation of the wetlands even more important, though, is that of those 160 species of birds, around fifteen percent of them are classified as endangered or rare species.
Sicao itself is a small village located on a strip of land that is completely surrounded by salt marshes and mangrove swamps. Hundreds of years ago, the area was actually an island that was surrounded by shoals, and proved to be a perfect location for the construction of a fort, becoming the front line for the protection of Fort Zeelandia (熱蘭遮城 / 安平古堡).
Between the 1600s and the late 1800s, the area was home to several other forts, including the Sicao Fort (四草砲台), Annan Fort (安南四草砲臺) and Fort Zeeburgh (海堡), which I’ll mention again soon.
Japanese-era map of Sicao with the canal area we can tour today marked in red.
Within the area we refer to as the Taijiang National Park today, you’ll find that there are quite a few salt fields (鹽田), most notably, the Qigu Salt Fields (七股鹽田), another popular tourist attraction. Many of these salt fields have been cultivated for hundreds of years, but in this case, the Anjun Salt Field (安順鹽田 / あんじゅんえんでん), constructed by the Taiwan Salt Company (臺灣製鹽株式會社) in 1923 (大正12年) is where the Green Tunnel that we enjoy today got its start.
The Japanese utilized the Sicao Lagoon (四草潟湖), and the sandbar terrain to construct embankments for which they could isolate the sea-water, which was filtered through the construction of a network of canals. Once completed, the Anjun Salt Field became the most advanced tile-paved salt field (瓦盤鹽田) in Taiwan, which increased the level of productivity compared to the more natural salt fields in the area.
When you arrive in the area today, the first thing you’ll probably notice is the giant Dazhong Temple (大眾廟) next to the bus stop and the parking lot for the tunnel. But if you take some time to walk around, you’ll probably also notice that there are a number of other artificially constructed canals, where the desalinated sea water from the salt fields was released back into the ocean. What most people don’t actually realize is that the ‘Sicao Green Tunnel’ was originally just one of the main canals for the nearby salt field, with a mangrove ultimately growing on top of it.
The process by which the mangrove has grown over the tunnel is something that has been completely natural, so don’t let anyone else fool you by saying that the tunnel is fake.
Yes, the walls of the canal were artificially constructed almost a century ago, but the mangrove is just an example of how these nature has the ability to take back control, especially within wetland parks, like this one.
There are elements of this tour that I’ll mention later, which are somewhat misleading, but the Green Tunnel itself is an example of what happens when you let nature take over, and what was once simply an artificial canal for a salt canal has become an important ecological habitat for birds, crabs, and camera-clicking tourists like us!
Now, let’s talk about the tour!
Touring the Sicao Green Tunnel
I find it interesting that most of the international travel writers who have published articles about the Sicao Green Tunnel have all asked the same questions, whereas its rare to see the same types of commentary from local writers. I may have to play a bit of the devils advocate on this one, but I think in the end, even with some valid criticism, most people find that a tour through the tunnel results in a beautiful experience.
So, first, let me explain the tour.
When you search ‘Sicao Green Tunnel’ in English, you’ll find a few websites that offer a brief introduction to the tunnel, but the vast majority of what turns up on search engines are links selling tickets for the tour. To be honest, people have lots of ways of profitting off of travelers, or taking a cut for facilitating basically nothing, so I’m going to let you in on a little secret: You don’t have to purchase online tickets for the tour prior to your arrival. You’ll be perfectly fine showing up on the day you want to take a tour, purchasing a ticket, and getting yourself on one of the boats.
When you arrive in Sicao, you’ll easily find the ticket window, and purchasing tickets is a smooth process, no matter what language you speak.
There is one thing that you’ll have to pay attention to, though.
There are two different tours available for tourists, the most important one being the thirty-minute long Sicao Green Tunnel Tour (綠色隧道) while the other is a seventy-minute long boat tour of Taijiang National Park. The longer tour goes in a completely opposite direction, and the Green Tunnel isn’t included, so you’ll want to keep that in mind. However, if you’re an avid birdwatcher, this tour might be the one for you as you have the chance of seeing the migratory black-faced spoonbill (黑脸琵鹭) in their natural habitat.
The pricing scheme for both tours is the same, despite one being considerably longer:
Sicao Green Tunnel Tour (綠色隧道)
Adult: 200 NT, Children Aged 7-12: 100NT, Seniors and Children Aged 0-6: 30NT
Taijiang National Park Tour (台江航線)
Adult: 200 NT, Children Aged 7-12: 100NT, Seniors and Children Aged 0-6: 30NT
Hours: Tour Boats run daily from 8:00am - 4:00pm.
Once you’ve purchased your tickets for the tour, before you do anything else, it’s important to make your way to the waiting room, which is located to the left of the ticket window, to check out when the next scheduled departure is leaving. The boats typically leave when there are enough people to more or less fill the seats, so If you happen to visit on a day when there aren’t many tourists in the area, there won’t be as many departures. You may end up having to wait a while if you miss the boat. Similarly, if you want to get a seat at the front, you’re going to have to be strategic and patient about how you line up.
When its time for your tour to start, the staff will give a life jacket demonstration, similar to the one you’ll receive from the flight attendants before a flight. The demonstration isn’t actually necessary, because the entire time you’re sitting in the room waiting for your boat, they have videos playing on the televisions in the highly air conditioned room displaying the exact same thing on repeat in several different languages.
Once the demonstration is over, they’ll lead the group out into the boarding area where you’ll grab a life preserver, and you’ll be given a bamboo hat to wear, which might seem weird, but is pretty helpful in the hot Tainan sun. When you hop on the boat, depending on where you are in the line, you may not have much of a choice of seats, but if you’re close to the front, you’ll probably want to choose as closest to the front as you can get, or on the sides of the boat, for the best views.
Once you’ve got your seat, you’ll have a tour guide, who will introduce everything to you in Mandarin, and the only time you’ll probably hear English is when they tell you watch your head, when you’ve entered the canopy area where the trees branches get pretty close to the boat. If you have difficulty understanding what the tour guide is saying, just take note of the direction the other people on the baot are looking, and its likely that you’ll see crabs and birds hanging out.
The first portion of the trip is somewhat underwhelming, especially since you’re directly exposed to the hot sun, but I have to say, seeing the roof of the temple protruding from the top of the trees is quite beautiful and makes for some great photos. The real experience starts when you enter the canopy area where the saturation of emerald green with the trees, the water, and the reflection would make the Wizard of Oz jealous.
Eventually the tour guide will turn off the boats engines, and you’ll float down the canal in the calm water in relative silence. At this point, if you’re sitting at the front, back, or on the sides of the boat, you’ll be in luck as the tour guides will turn the boat around so everyone has an opportunity to take photos. They tend to be quite accommodating, so you don’t have to worry too much that you won’t get one of those perfect tourist photos.
Looking at my photos, you might be thinking I’ve purposely oversaturated them in Photoshop, but I’ve actually toned them down quite a bit. The truth is that the ‘Green Tunnel’ really is that green, and that’s what makes the experience an enjoyable one.
With that being said, I would be remiss not to mention some of the things that cause people to think that the ‘Green Tunnel’ is tourist trap. As I mentioned earlier, the tunnel is a part of a Japanese-era irrigation canal that is currently located within the expansive Taijiang National Park where you’ll find large natural wetlands and mangroves - but none of them are tourist-friendly as this one.
When I mentioned that I’d play devils advocate earlier, what I meant was that, instead of allowing a bunch of tourists to trample around precious wetlands and preserved natural habitats, allowing them to enjoy this ‘cultivated’ version of a mangrove tunnel is actually a great alternative.
When I say cultivated, it’ll become obvious during your thirty-minute trip that the sides of the ditch are enforced with concrete. You’ll also see ropes holding up the trees, which are often trimmed, sandbags along the sides, and other elements that are obviously not native to the natural space.
Despite all of this, it’s obvious that nature has been allowed to do what it does - the mangrove is quite healthy - and depending on the time of the year you visit, you could be treated to views of egrets, mudskippers, and Fiddler crabs enjoying their lives.
By far, the most misleading aspect of the trip are some of the claims that are made by the tour guides about ‘Qing-era buildings’, such as the age of Dazhong Temple, the location of the historic Tax Bureau (釐金局遺址) next to the canal, and some of their mentions about the age of the canal, but if you don’t speak Mandarin, you’re not really going to understand what they’re saying anyway, so does it even matter? I’d say probably not.
No, the tax bureau wasn’t located in this area, but it was nearby, despite there not much being left of it today. Similarly, while on the tour, you’ll see a sign referring to the ruins of Fort Zeeburgh (海堡). There actually isn’t much to see here, but this claim is actual factual, and archaeological digs in the area in the past have discovered mass graves full of Dutch soldiers.
If you really care about the age of the temple next door or the history of the Qing-era taxation bureau, you’re probably going to do your homework prior to your arrival where you’ll be able to go see where it was originally located, even though there’s not much left to identify it.
I don’t think any of these things should prevent you from taking a tour of the Green Tunnel. I've personally been on the tour several times, and I admit that I’ve enjoyed it every time. It’s a short, but beautiful experience, but I can understand why international tourists would have complaints, especially if they’re well-traveled. J
Take what the tour guides say at face value and just enjoy the view!
Getting There
Address: (臺南市安南區大眾路360號)
GPS: 120.13633, 23.019590
If you have your own means of transportation, simply input the address provided above into your vehicle’s GPS system, and the route will be mapped out for you. Taijiang National Park is conveniently located close to the highway, so depending on where you’re coming from, getting there shouldn’t be too difficult. You’ll want to be careful, though, the roads in the park are quite wide, and can be misleading as the generously large roads on the sides are reserved for scooters and bicycles, so you need to take care not to drive your car into these lanes.
If you don’t have a car and you’re in town for a quick visit, one of the best options for getting around the more rural areas of Tainan City is to simply rent a scooter near the Tainan Train Station.
If you have a Taiwanese drivers license or an International Drivers License, you shouldn’t have much trouble. If you have neither, you might still find a rental company that is willing to rent to you, but driving without a license isn’t recommended, especially for insurance reasons.
Similarly, if you don’t want to commit to a scooter, but you have a drivers license, you could make use of the GoShare shared scooter network, but I don’t particularly recommend this option as it’ll likely end up costing you more than renting a scooter for the entire day.
Public Bus
For most tourists, the most convenient option for getting to the Sicao Green Tunnel is probably to make use of Tainan’s public transportation network. There are tourist buses that conveniently depart from the downtown core of the city and will take you all the way out to the national park, so you won’t have to worry too much about getting a scooter, getting lost, or finding a parking spot near the tunnel.
If you choose to make use of the public transportation system, you have two bus options. One that runs throughout the week, and the other which only runs on weekends to assist with the amount of traffic that makes it way to the national park.
For both of the buses, you can get on at the Tainan South Station (臺南火車站(南站)), which is located on the southwestern side of the large traffic circle in front of the railway station. Getting there is quite easy as the bus stop is located on the same side of the train station’s exit and has a roof-covered waiting area where you’re likely to see quite a few people waiting.
Daily Shuttle Bus: Tainan Bus #10 (10路 - 台南火車站－鹿耳門天后宮) Real Time
Weekend Tourist Shuttle: Taiwan Tourist Shuttle #99 (臺灣好行99號)
In both cases, no matter where you get on, you’ll take the bus to the Sihcao Eco-Culture Area - Dajhong Temple (四草生態文化園區 -大眾廟) bus stop, which conveniently stops at the temple, close to where you’ll purchase tickets for the boat.
In both cases, you can get on or off the bus at several locations, so if you’d like to include other tourist destinations on your day trip, these two buses are quite useful. During the commute, either there or on your return, you’ll pass by the Anping Fort (安平古堡), Anping Tree House (安平樹屋), Eternal Golden Castle (億載金城) Koxinga Shrine (延平郡王祠), Hayashi Department Store (林百貨), and several other popular tourist destinations.
However, I recommend you start your day with a stop at Sicao and then make your way back in the direction of Anping as the buses that go to Sicao stop in the early evening and you won’t want to find yourself stranded in the area.
Youbike
If you find yourself in the Anping (安平) area of the city and you’re feeling adventurous, you could easily grab one of the shared Youbikes and make your way across the bridge into Taijiang National Park where you can enjoy a pretty scenic and relaxing ride on a road where you’re also pretty safe from traffic. Once you’ve arrived at Sicao, you’ll find that there’s a Youbike docking station across from the temple, so you can return the bike, take the tour, and then when you’re done, either grab another Youbike, or hop on the bus to your next destination.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend downloading the Youbike App to your phone so that you’ll have a better idea of the location where you’ll be able to find the closest docking station.
Over the past decade or more, Taiwan has done an excellent job preserving its wetlands and part of that preservation is creating sustainable eco-friendly tourist destinations and the fact that the Sicao Green Tunnel has received international acclaim shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
There are, of course, elements of mass-tourism involved, and even though not everything might be as it seems, the beauty of the mangrove far exceeds any of the criticisms one might have about the tour. If you are in the Tainan area, you’d do well to take a trip out to the Taijiang National Park, even if its just to enjoy the half hour tour through this beautiful mangrove.
Hopefully the photos in this article should provide ample evidence of how spectacularly beautiful this place is!
References
Sicao Wetlands | 四草 (Wiki)
Sicao Fortress | 四草砲臺 (Wiki)
Taijiang National Park | 台江國家公園 (Wiki)
四草紅樹林綠色隧道 | Sicao Mangrove Green Tunnel (台江國家公園管理處)
四草大眾廟 (Wiki)
四草綠色隧道 (台南旅遊網)
四草綠色隧道 (Taiwan Tourism)
四草大眾廟 (Dazhong Temple’s Official Website)
四草綠色隧道 (濱海國家風景區管理處)
The Misleading Tourism at Tainan Green Tunnel (Foreigners in Taiwan)
Is Sicao Green Tunnel in Tainan Worth the Trip? (Nick Kembel Travels)
Gallery / Flickr (High Res Photos)
