Taijiang National Park

Taijiang covers the flat, watery edge of Tainan, where a former lagoon has silted into a landscape of tidal creeks, oyster racks on bamboo frames, fish ponds and salt flats. The most visited part is the Sicao Green Tunnel, a narrow drainage channel roofed over completely by mangrove so that a small punt travels through a green corridor with the branches nearly touching the water; tickets are timed and sell out. Further north around Qigu, the shallow ponds are the main wintering ground of the black-faced spoonbill, a bird with a global population small enough that the counts here matter. Between the two the roads run past oyster shell heaps, drying racks and the low sheds of the shellfish industry.

What you actually see

• The Sicao Green Tunnel - a mangrove-roofed channel travelled by small punt, with timed tickets.
• Black-faced spoonbills - the wintering flock on the Qigu ponds, watched from hides and platforms.
• The oyster racks - bamboo frames and shell heaps across the shallow lagoon and its shores.
• The lagoon boat trips - larger boats out onto the open lagoon and its sandbars.

When to go

November to March is the season, both for the spoonbills and because the coastal plain in summer is very hot with little shade. Green Tunnel tickets are timed and weekend slots go early in the day, so arrive at opening or book. Boat trips do not run in rough weather. Late afternoon light is best over the ponds.

Honest expectations

The Green Tunnel ride is short, perhaps a quarter of an hour, and the queue can be longer than the trip. The park is scattered across a wide flat area with no centre and is awkward without a car. Spoonbills are distant specks without a telescope. Mosquitoes are severe near the mangrove, and midsummer here is glaring and shadeless.

Nearby

Anping and the old centre of Tainan are close, and the Beimen salt fields are north along the coast.