Nantun

Nántún (南屯) forms the southwestern corner of urban Taichung, where the Taichung Basin meets the Dadu Plateau (大肚台地). Originally an Indigenous settlement known as Babusaga (貓霧拺), it became one of the earliest parts of the basin cultivated by Han settlers, who called it Litoudian (犁頭店) after the blacksmith shops that forged ploughs for the surrounding fields. Together with Dali and Fengyuan it formed one of the three original settlements of the Taichung basin, its old core still gathered around the Wanhe Temple (萬和宮), a Mazu temple founded in 1726. The district’s best-known attraction is the Rainbow Village, a brightly painted remnant of a military dependents’ village spared from demolition. Along the plateau ridge above, post-war gun emplacements such as those at Wanggaoliao survey the coast.