921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan, Taichung, Taiwan

5Rebecca L 5:00 PM Jan 4, 2020

Must experience
We were with one foreigner and two kids there. It brought us back to the spot when it happened that night. There‘s one room where you can experience when earthquake really happens, what everything in the room could happen. Taiwan is in the earthquake stripe, a quick way to understand what earthquake is about.

4plhuang 5:00 PM Sep 11, 2015

Fascinating, educational and so memorable
Visited this museum with young children and elderly parents in Aug 2013, yet 2 years on, I'm still compelled to write this review. It is definitely off the beaten tracks, but I'm so glad I added this to our itinerary after I read reviews on Trip Advisor! Getting there - I'd recommend taxi from your hotel esp if travelling with young/old family... in fact, it had brought us to a different zone in Taichung so much so that our friendly taxi driver said that he would wait for us to come out and bring us back to Taichung city! This is despite us telling him that we don't now how long we will take... (he said because his taxi is from the city zone, he won't get any bookings thru the radio call centre anyways.) btw, you might want to take note that the Chinese name is 921地震教育园区(translated to be earthquake education park) as my taxi driver was initially not sure when I said 地震博物馆(direct translation of the Eng name)! I chose the attraction for its educational value, but wow, it was so much more than my husband and I had expected. I'm touched by the efforts of the local authorities in preserving the destroyed infrastructure of the school, curating such an educational experience on the very disaster site of the earthquake that happened in 1999 21 Sep (thus 921), and with such professionalism and sincerity! The exhibits appealed to everyone in my group - from my young children (5 and 7) to my elderly parents. The museum seems to be visited by lots of local school children too, as we met a few bus loads on our way in. For the boys (and us!), it was all eye-opening. The exhibits are varied and engaging - pictorial, audio/visual, there are also hands-on activities along the way that will captivate them. Exhibit texts are in Chinese and English. For the seniors, there's lots of walking as there are many sections/halls with different themes, but most of it is indoors and air-conditioned, so it's still comfortable. We spent an entire leisurely afternoon there and I felt it was well worth it, esp. for us who come from earthquake-free countries (you'll count your blessings). We took >3 hours cos we took it easy, but adults should be able to cover this in 2+ hours. One last point to share - there is an earthquake simulation room (simulating the scenario in 1999) which we queued v long (along with students!) to get in... but it lasted only a few minutes! Personally I feel you can skip this. It was Taiwan's national day period when we visited - to our surprise, admission was free! FYI, the museum also admits free during the anniversary period of the earthquake. I've been recommending all my friends visiting Taichung not to give this museum a miss. Hope you found this review useful for your planning too. :)