[Family Travel]Eco & Heritage Light Trip: Taoyuan Old Street Creek River Education Center

Yi Fan

A few years after the renovation of Old Street Creek, the colorful pipe slide at the River Education Center became like our backyard. We would frequently ride our bikes here with the little ones for some outdoor fun. My younger son has been playing here since he was a baby, and even after all these years, we never get tired of it. Recently, my grandparents went abroad for a trip and asked us to babysit for a few days. My younger daughter said she wanted to go to the slide, so I took the chance to take some photos and share this excellent free attraction.

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At the intersection of Zhongfeng Road and Yanping Road, you’ll see four huge colorful pipes. Don’t assume they’re just art installations — there’s more to them than meets the eye. Walk through the pipes and you’ll find the “Time Tunnel Slide” that kids absolutely love. It looks to be about two to three stories high, and first-timers might get a surprise from the sudden drop.

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There are four slides corresponding to the four pipes, made of terrazzo that’s very sturdy and durable. After years of heavy use, the slides have become smoother, making the descent faster and more thrilling.

My younger daughter has been sliding here since infancy — she doesn’t need any instructions and just plays on her own. She climbed up and down over ten times, and of course, she also convinced me to climb up and slide with her many times.

We also brought our own jump horse to exercise in the open space nearby. Jumping on it is super energy-consuming, and it’s lightweight and easy to carry. When not in use, it can just hang next to mom’s bag.

The path next to the slides leads to the “Old Street Creek River Education Center.” This area is probably where I lived as a child too. The old house I grew up in was right by Old Street Creek (you could see the creek from the window), but the whole area has since been demolished and rebuilt. So every time I walk here, I’m reminded of many childhood memories, and now I get to help my children build their own wonderful childhood recollections here.

Actually, we entered the center through the back door near the slides. Right at the entrance, you’ll see a statue of an old farmer and a black pig. My younger daughter is scared of it every time she sees it and even goes out of her way to avoid it when entering. What’s so scary about it?

Under the transparent floor, there are many realistic fake fish, including big tilapias and smaller mountain stream fish. Every visit, we make sure to count all the fish. There are also many sound buttons on the walls: rain frogs, toads, frogs… etc. Paired with the pictures and descriptions, it’s a great mini biology lesson.

Next door explains the story of Old Street Creek, but the content is a bit advanced. My preschool-aged daughter isn’t interested at all — it seems more suitable for upper elementary school field trips.

Climb up the rustic wooden stairs to the second floor, where you can enjoy the music of Deng Yu-xian and his works. Every song is a well-known classic: “Rainy Night Flower,” “Looking Forward to the Spring Breeze,” “Four Seasons Red,” “Moonlit Night Sorrow.” You might not recognize the titles, but the melodies are incredibly familiar.

After visiting the River Education Center, head out to explore the surrounding area. The nearby public restroom was converted from a pigsty. The old name of this area was “Pig Field,” so it’s no surprise there are remnants of pigsties, but the effort to preserve the old buildings is commendable.

Of course, there are also quaint old houses, but their doors and windows are all locked and not open to the public.

The park also has an ecological pond and fruit trees. As long as you slow down and explore with your kids, there’s plenty to do.

The River Education Center is right next to Old Street Creek. I remember when I was a child, there were still many fish and shrimp in the water, but on holidays, you’d see the creek water dyed in various colors from upstream dyeing factories discharging waste. The creek gradually became smelly. Later, the government inexplicably covered the creek to build a commercial area, which didn’t attract businesses and ended up as a parking lot. After going through all these unfavorable treatments, Old Street Creek has finally emerged into the light and regained a healthy appearance.

Walking along the trail toward Xinxin Park, we continued to explore other facilities. Along the way, we passed this snail sculpture — every time we see it, we have to climb on it.

Xinxin Park also has another mini slide, built with wooden crates forming uneven steps, making climbing even more fun.

The park also has two rock climbing walls, but my younger daughter couldn’t climb them at all, so she turned to playing on the monkey bars nearby.

There are two turtles by the pathway — the bigger one is hard to climb, so we needed an adult’s help, but she happily settled for riding the smaller baby turtle.

Zhongli really has quite a few shaved ice shops, and the flavors are mostly similar. Since it’s close to home, we often buy from this one. If you walk along the riverside trail toward Zhongzheng Road for a while, you’ll reach it, but since we were heading home anyway, we just rode over directly.

This shop mainly does takeout (you can tell from the window they’ve opened for serving customers), and there are only four tables inside, so it gets full quickly. We ordered the pineapple flavor shaved ice — you can actually taste the pineapple bits, very authentic. Their signature taro flavor, which my daughter doesn’t like, is extremely smooth and rich. Friends who love taro must give it a try.

This is basically our regular route — almost free and lets the kids run around outdoors in the sunshine. Highly recommended.

★ Old Street Creek River Education Center

Address: No. 58, Zhongyuan Road, Zhongli District, Taoyuan City 320

Opening Hours: 09:00 – 17:00

Phone: 03-4221469

Website: http://www.shedu.org.tw/river/index.html

[Authorized repost from "Oh My Double Cow Cuties"] Original source: [Old Street Creek River Education Center, Time Tunnel Slide, Xinsi Park, Mianmian Ice @ Taoyuan Zhongli]