The Lanyang Museum

The museum opened in 2010 beside the old Wushih harbour, on a lagoon that was once the main landing point for the Yilan plain. The building is the first thing anyone notices: a single wedge of dark stone and glass leaning out of the ground at the same angle as the cuesta formations along this coast, so that it reads as an outcrop rather than a building. Inside, the exhibition works down through the geography of the region, from mountain to plain to sea, with the collections on farming, fishing, timber and settlement arranged to follow that descent. The wetland outside is part of the site and is used heavily by waterbirds.

What you actually see

• The tilted building - a wedge of stone and glass set at the angle of the coastal rock.
• The mountain to sea galleries - exhibitions arranged by altitude down through the region.
• The wetland - the lagoon and reed beds around the museum, with birdlife.
• The harbour view - the old Wushih anchorage and the Pacific beyond it.

When to go

Year-round and mostly indoors, which suits Yilan, one of the wettest parts of Taiwan. Weekday mornings are quiet. The museum has a weekly closing day, so check before travelling out. Combining it with a boat trip to Turtle Island from the adjacent harbour makes a full day, though those sailings are seasonal and weather-dependent.

Honest expectations

The building is more memorable than the collection, which is a regional museum of the ordinary kind and much thinner in English than in Chinese. Two hours is enough for most people. The area around the harbour is windswept and has little else to it. Turtle Island trips next door need permits booked in advance and are cancelled often.

Nearby

Turtle Island sailings leave from the harbour and Jiaoxi's hot spring town is inland.