Location: Southwest coast of Taiwan, Tainan City

Established: 2009

Taijiang is the most historically layered of Taiwan’s national parks, and the least obviously dramatic. There are no mountains and no gorges. The average altitude in the park is around 0.5 metres. What it contains instead is a patchwork of tidal flats, lagoons, mangrove wetlands, salt fields, and fish ponds along the Tainan coast — terrain that reads, at first glance, as unremarkable but which carries an extraordinary density of ecological and historical significance.

The area was once an inland sea, the Taijiang Inner Sea（台江內海）, which silted up progressively from the 17th century. It was the landing point for Koxinga（Zheng Chenggong, 鄭成功） when he expelled the Dutch from Taiwan in 1661–62, and the main entry route for early Han Chinese migrants crossing the Taiwan Strait. The park’s marine territory covers the historical shipping lane used by those settlers.

The park was created in part to defeat a large industrial development project that would have converted the coastal wetlands into oil refineries and townships. Its establishment in 2009 is considered a significant conservation success.

What to look for:

The black-faced spoonbill（黑面琵鷺） is the park’s signature species and one of the world’s most endangered waterbirds. Each October, the birds migrate south from the Korean Peninsula to overwinter in the Zengwen River estuary wetlands within the park. The total global population numbers in the low thousands; the Taijiang wetlands regularly host the single largest wintering concentration in the world. A dedicated reserve and viewing pavilion allows observation with high-powered binoculars.

The Sicao Green Tunnel（四草綠色隧道） is a mangrove-lined canal navigable by shallow-draft bamboo or PVC raft. The canopy closes overhead as the craft moves through, creating the enclosed, humid atmosphere that has earned it comparisons — affectionate rather than strictly botanical — to the Amazon. The trees are more than half a century old. The park is also the site of some of Taiwan’s oldest surviving temples and relics from the Dutch and Koxinga periods.

Taijiang is accessible by scooter from Tainan city centre in around 25 minutes, and its flat terrain makes it suitable for cycling.

Who it suits: Birdwatchers (particularly in October to March for the spoonbills), travellers interested in Taiwanese history and early settlement, those combining a visit with time in Tainan, and ecotourism-focused visitors.