Taipei Botanical Garden Audio Guide

Taipei Botanical Garden: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Taipei Botanical Garden

   Welcome to Taipei Botanical Garden, a patch of calm in the middle of Taipei's Zhongzheng District. You will find it on Nanhai Road, and it covers about 8 hectares. In a dense city, that much green space is a rare treat, and generations of locals have made it a favorite place to slow down. The garden has been part of Taipei's memory for a very long time. Its story reaches back more than a century to a small plant nursery, and further still to the shores of an ancient lake. Over the next few stops, we will walk through those layers: how a nursery became Taiwan's first botanical garden, two historic buildings that sit among the trees, and the older human story hiding beneath your feet. The garden also sits close to the National History Museum, the Science Museum and the Art Museum. So you are not only in a park, you are in one of the city's quiet cultural corners. Take a breath, slow your pace, and let the trees set the tempo.

2. 02

   From Nursery to Botanical Garden

   Every great garden starts somewhere, and this one started small. In 1896, during the Japanese colonial period, an official nursery of less than 5 hectares was set up near Xiaonanmen, the Little South Gate, at what is now the south end of Bo'ai Road. This was the birth of the Taipei Botanical Garden, and it was then known simply as the Taipei Nursery. The nursery grew along with its mission. In 1911, the Taiwan Forestry Experimental Station was established, and the Taipei nursery became its principal research site. Then, on the twenty-second of January, 1921, it was declared the Taipei Botanical Garden, making it the first botanical garden in Taiwan. Today the garden spans 8 hectares. It quickly became a working laboratory. Plants were brought in from Taiwan, Japan, China and Southeast Asia for experiments and research. By 1930, the garden held 1,129 species, serving largely academic study and the natural sciences. So as you wander, remember that these tree-lined paths began as a place where people tested what could grow here.

3. 03

   Two Historic Buildings Among the Trees

   Two buildings in the garden are listed as historic structures, and each tells a different story. The first is the Herbarium, built in 1924 and the first herbarium built in Taiwan. It served as a specimen depository until the year 2000, when the growing number of specimens moved to the Forest Conservation Building. As a building that represents the history of plant taxonomy in Taiwan, it is now protected as a historical site. The second is the Guest House of Imperial Envoys, a Qing Dynasty-era building from 1888. It originally stood on the spot where Taipei Zhongshan Hall stands today. In 1933 it was relocated to the garden and renamed the Bu-Cheng-Shih-Sz Museum. Today it is also known as the Museum of Imperial Envoy Lodging. Look closely at its design. It is an official-looking building with three corridors leading inside. It holds a large hall with living rooms on both sides, plus passages on the left, right and center of a gate and a doorway. Standing before it, you get a real feeling for the dignity of the office and the refinement of the architecture.

4. 04

   Beneath Your Feet: An Ancient Lakeshore

   Here is a twist: the garden's story does not start in 1896. The grounds are an unearthed cultural relic of the old Taipei Lake. Around 4,500 years ago, that lake became habitable land, and people began to live and work in this area. The cultural remnants they left behind make the botanical garden an important archaeological site in Taiwan, and one of the earliest sites of human settlement on the island. So the green quiet around you has been a place of human activity for thousands of years. Now bring the story into the present. The garden's nine ponds are designed to grow different plants, and in summer many visitors come for the lotus. In winter they come for the falling leaves. Each season brings a new treescape, and if you visit in the afternoon, you are treated to dimming light and cooler air.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   The garden is not only a place to look back. It is an active institution, defined as a collection of documented living plants kept for research, conservation, display and education. Part of the national Plant Ark initiative gave the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute a budget of 400 million New Taiwan dollars over four years, and it planned new greenhouses here. In 2022, agreements were signed with the Mlyňany Arboretum in Slovakia and the Prague Botanical Garden, with plans to feature Central European plants here and Taiwanese ferns in Prague. As you continue, try tracing the layers for yourself: a Qing Dynasty guest house, a herbarium from the 1920s, the lotus ponds, and the ancient lakeshore beneath it all. See which ones you can spot, and notice how the light changes among the trees. There is more to discover just beyond the garden, too, with the neighboring museums close by. Wander at your own pace and let curiosity pick the next path.