Lukang, an hour south-west of Taichung in Changhua County, is one of the best-preserved old towns on the island. It was Taiwan's second-largest port in the late eighteenth century, when the strait between here and Fujian carried most of the island's trade, and the original wealth still shows in the temples and merchant houses lining the old streets. The harbour silted up long ago, which is exactly why so much survives — the town slipped out of the modern economy and was never rebuilt over.
The two great religious sites anchor a visit. Longshan Temple, a Qing-dynasty Buddhist complex often called the most beautiful temple in Taiwan, rewards a slow walk through its successive courtyards and carved beams; the Mazu Temple, dedicated to the sea goddess, draws steady streams of incense-bearing pilgrims. Between them runs a web of narrow lanes — Bantian Old Street and the famous Nine-Turns Lane among them — where you can still find sweet shops, fan-makers, tinsmiths, and lantern workshops working much as they have for generations.
The everyday pleasures are the real draw: ox-tongue pastries and phoenix-eye cakes from the old bakeries, shrimp monkey and oyster omelettes from the market stalls, and the way the brick alleys glow under hanging lanterns in the evening. It is an easy half-day by direct bus from Taichung, but stay into the evening if you can — the crowds thin, the lights come on, and the town feels closest to its old self.
Lukang is compact and walkable, with no need for transport once you arrive. Come for the temples and the lanes, but linger for the food and the unhurried sense of a place that history quietly passed by.