Baguashan Great Buddha

The Buddha on Baguashan was finished in 1961, twenty-two metres of reinforced concrete finished black, seated on a lotus and looking out over Changhua and the plain. It is hollow: stairs inside lead up through several floors with painted panels of the Buddha's life. A long avenue of lions leads up to it and a temple stands behind. It was for a time the tallest statue of its kind in Asia, a claim long since overtaken.

What you actually see

• The statue - twenty-two metres of black concrete seated on a lotus.
• The interior - stairs and painted panels inside the hollow figure.
• The lion avenue - the approach lined with stone lions.
• The plain view - Changhua and the Taichung basin from the terrace.

When to go

Year round; the site is open through the day. Evenings bring locals up for the air and the view. Summer afternoons on the exposed terrace are hot.

Honest expectations

The interior is dated and the painted panels are faded. The tallest-in-Asia claim has been out of date for decades. The hill is a busy local park rather than a quiet site.

Nearby

The Changhua roundhouse is below in the city, and Lukang is west on the coast.