Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村 on the outskirts of Taichung is such an amazing place – it’s easily the most attractive set of buildings in the whole of Taichung ~ YES!

It’s the last remaining few houses of a Veterans Village, built for the old soldiers and their families who came to Taiwan after 1949. Most the houses are already gone, demolished and the land redeveloped, but old Mr. Huang (Huang Yong-Fu 黃永阜), known as ‘Rainbow Grandpa’ (彩虹爺爺), was not letting that happen to his village. Now aged 95, he decided to start painting the remaining houses a few years ago, and in doing so, has saved his wonderful village!

Not only has the place been saved from demolition, but the whole village has been preserved – and in fact has been closed recently while the Taichung City Government gave the place a whole new roof. Now it’s newly open, so I had to check it out.  Mr. Huang was on hand for photos, and there’s even some walls newly decorated.

I love this place!  I love the idea that one man with a paintbrush and a lot of determination and creativity can save a whole village from demolition!

And now there’s tons of tourists visiting, and guess what? It’s on a direct bus route from St. James’ Church ~ YES!