Miyahara (宮原眼科) is a red-brick 1927 eye clinic that now sells ice cream, chocolates and pastries in an interior styled after Harry Potter. It is a short walk from Taichung Station, and it is one of the five places we send everyone first. Go for the building, stay for an ice cream.
- Hours 10:00 to 21:00 daily (as listed by Taichung Tourism, October 2026)
- Address No. 20, Zhongshan Rd., Central District
- Getting there TRA Taichung Station, then a short walk
A short history
The Japanese ophthalmologist Miyahara Takeo built the clinic in 1927, beside the Lyuchuan Canal near the station, and for the rest of the Japanese era it was the largest eye clinic in Taichung. After 1945 the building became the city's health bureau. Later it stood empty and fell into disrepair.
Dawn Cake (日出), a pastry company best known for its pineapple cakes, bought the building and turned it into a shop. It kept the original red-brick walls and arched arcade and redesigned the inside in a style the city's tourism office compares to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. The old well in the middle of the building is now a glass charity box.
What to get
Miyahara's own site splits the building into counters, each with its own page: the ice cream, Miyahara chocolate, bubble tea, the Dawn Cake shop with its pastries and boxed cakes, and the Zui Yue Lou (醉月樓) salon.
- Ice cream: the counter most people come for.
- Chocolate and pastries: the shelves of boxed cakes and chocolates are where people buy gifts to take home.
- Bubble tea: if you want a drink with your walk through the old town.
Good to know: the ice cream counter is the busiest part of the building. If there is a queue, look around the shelves and the arcade first; the building is worth the visit on its own.
Around Miyahara
Miyahara sits in the old center around Taichung Station. The Lyuchuan Canal runs right past it, and the old Taichung Station building is a couple of hundred meters away, so it fits neatly into a walk around the old town.
→ Central Taichung and the old town · Sun cakes · Bubble tea · Only in Taichung
Sources
History, address, opening hours, the interior and the nearby sights from Taichung Tourism (Miyahara), posted April 2026. The counters and brands from Miyahara's official site. Checked October 2026.