Located a short drive away from Highway 3, between Taichung and Chiayi City is a peaceful little path lined with mango trees called the Gukeng Green Tunnel (古坑綠色隧道公園 / gu keng lu se sui dao gong yuan). In addition to looking picturesque, this street features large green spaces, a variety of food vendors, a museum, and an entertainment park. All of these amenities make it perfect for a small family outing.
This street is blocked off on both ends for pedestrian traffic. There are wide sidewalks on both sides for strolling, along with the road down the middle.
We arrived at the Gukeng Green Tunnel in the late afternoon. After snapping a few photos of the green tunnel from the northern entrance, we noticed a large open space with a giant bee behind it. Interested, we walked towards it to find a museum dedicated to honey.
Side note: I really do feel like there’s a museum in Taiwan for anything you’re interested in.
The Honey Museum (蜜蜂故事館 / mi feng gu shi guan) is a cute little museum with honey-related exhibits and large than life bee models. Aside from the large bees scattered around the museum and the cute bee mascot, the huge draw is the selection of honey-related foodstuff they have. From honey wine to honey cookies, there’s probably something here for the honey enthusiast in your life.
Back outside, the sun was getting lower in the sky, but people were still out and about, exploring, walking their pets.
We rejoined the mango tree tunnel path and continued walking down.
Along the way we passed by a few dogs that were being put up for adoption, a vendor selling a variety of mango trees, and what looked like a small amusement park on the right (going southward).
As it was getting closer to dinner time, it was tempting to snack on something.
In addition to the typical Taiwanese night market-fare, they had a variety of goose egg dishes. The area is known for goose meat, so it wasn’t surprising to find a bunch of goose egg vendors. As much as the tea eggs (made with goose eggs) smelled good, I wasn’t that hungry to want to feast on a giant egg.
Eventually, we settled on shaved peanut ice cream rolls (花生捲冰淇淋 / hua sheng juan bing qi lin). They were a nice treat given the slightly hot temperature.
The cool thing about all of these vendors is how permanent they feel. Almost all of the vendors have some kind of back kitchen or storage area that is built into what looks like a series of train cars. The way that these vendors had some level of permanence to them reminded me of Dongdamen Night Market.
We got up to Yunlinxianer’erba Memorial Park (雲林縣二二八紀念公園 / yun lin xian er er ba ji nian gong yuan) before we turned around and headed back to the car. On the way back we strolled past what kind of looked like an orange orchard. As oranges (橙子 / cheng zi) in Taiwan are green on the outside, it’s a little hard to tell that they’re oranges, but it definitely reminded me that we weren’t in the city.
If you’re in the area and looking for a place to stroll amongst nature, check out the Gukeng Green Tunnel. If you’re a feeling adventurous, don’t forget to give some of the goose egg dishes a try too!