Zhongli Railway Station

Major Taiwan Railways stop on the western trunk line, the hub for migrant-worker neighbourhoods and city buses

Zhongli station is a busy interchange on the Taiwan Railways western trunk line, with frequent commuter trains to Taipei in the north and Hsinchu and Taichung in the south. The new station building, opened in stages from the 2000s onwards, replaced the older Japanese-era structure but kept some of the original platforms. The Taoyuan MRT runs underneath, with a separate station at Laojie River one stop east.

The blocks immediately around the station have become the centre of the Southeast Asian quarter — ASEAN Square is one street south — and the older shopping street running north-east leads into the central market. The station forecourt is a useful landmark for orientation.

things to do sight
A story
Zhongli station was the site of the 1977 Zhongli Incident, the most serious unrest in Taiwan during the Martial Law period. Allegations of election fraud during a county magistrate vote brought thousands of protesters into the streets around the station and the local police building was burned down. The incident is widely seen as the moment when Taiwan's democracy movement began to gather mass support.