Covering the six or so kilometers to Gaomei Wetlands (高美濕地) took me more than half an hour. The wetlands, which lie between the mouth of the Dajia River (大甲溪) and the Port of Taichung (台中港), didn’t exist half a century ago. The building of Gaomei Levee in 1976 led to a rapid accumulation of silt and sand. In 2004, Taichung County Government — which merged with Taichung City in 2010 — demarcated 701.3 hectares of dry land and seashore as Gaomei Wildlife Sanctuary (高美野生動物保護區). This area includes the most-visited part of the wetlands near the tiny settlement of Yuliao (魚寮).
