in downtown Taichung there is a long, winding park that leads you to the National Museum of Natural Science and the Taichung Botanical Gardens. rising up out of the green space is a giant glass and metal structure: the rain forest greenhouse.
the first thing you notice when you step inside is the waterfall. the second thing you notice is that the waterfall is not flowing from a stream or river, but from spigots located near the ceiling of the structure.
as we wandered through the paths, navigating around school tour groups, we realized that November is probably not the ideal time to visit the greenhouse. there was a lot of green... but not any flowers in bloom. [we plan to return sometime in the spring]
when we reached the bottom of the "trail", we found they also have a cafe and science center in the basement. with little fish, piranhas, and giant fish as long as I am tall. they also had an interesting collection of colorful frogs. [I can't tell you much else about them as the signs were all in Chinese]
it was a nice way to pass an hour or so before heading to the museum, though I think it would have been better if: 1. flowers were in bloom and 2. there was an English tour and/or signage. definitely worth a stroll through to see the waterfall and the frogs and fish, though.
and of course, the giant mosquito statue outside that tried to suck the life out of Husband.
