Dadu

Dàdù (大肚) is a mostly rural district in the southwest corner of Taichung, spread between the eponymous Dadu Plateau and Dadu River. It was home to the most prominent settlement of the Kingdom of Middag, the Papora Indigenous confederation later subjugated by the Qing. At the foot of the plateau stands Huangxi Academy (磺溪書院), an ornate Confucian academy dating back to 1887 and dedicated to the gods of scholarship. On the coastal railway, the wooden Zhuifen Station (追分車站), built in 1922, draws students who buy its lucky tickets onward to Chenggong (成功), a pairing that reads as a wish to pass their exams.