The onset of summer, which officially begins later this week, comes with beach season already in full swing. But as weekend vacationers in northern Taiwan head to the coast, they need to be aware that the waters of the eastern seaboard are often treacherous.
Every year people drown, though complete statistics of accidents are not available. The Northeast Coast Tourism Bureau (
According to the bureau's Chang Ching-an (張慶安), "most people who drown either can't swim or are weak swimmers. Often, they wade out to where the water is about chest height, then a wave will come and suddenly they can't touch bottom anymore, then they panic."
Learning to swim is not a compulsory part of Taiwan's education system as it is in some school systems in North America and Europe. To deal with a beach-going public that can't swim, Taiwan's coastal authorities tend towards extreme caution.
Ocean swimming is only recommended at specific pay beaches with lifeguards, who often will blow their whistles if you get more than 30m out to sea. Swimming in any other areas is officially considered "dangerous."
If this seems exasperating for those who know a thing or two about water safety, you should remember that Taiwan's beach culture is only about a dozen years old. During the martial law era, many beaches were strictly off limits as they were considered to be the national defense perimeter. Even in the early 1990s, some foreign residents report having been kicked off beaches by patrolling soldiers who told them they were not allowed to be there.
In spite of all this, a beach culture has slowly evolved. There are a number of beaches easily accessible from Taipei, and thousands flock to them each weekend.
While many of the developed coastal areas are watched over by overbearing lifeguards, several beaches are still more or less au natural -- completely undeveloped and without lifeguards. Some of the most popular are outside Taipei County in Ilan, like the increasingly popular Honeymoon Bay.
Honeymoon Bay is a black sand beach about two hours from Taipei by the local express trains of the Taiwan rail system. The station itself is called Tahsi, and the beach of fine black sand is visible from the station and only about 10 minutes away by foot.
Like many other beaches along the northeast coast, the entrance to Honeymoon Bay is guarded by signs instructing you not to swim there. Like Fulung, Honeymoon Bay is the unfortunate site of numerous drownings, and like many other spots along the coast, it's hard to say exactly how many.
The on-duty officer at the local police precinct said only that he had been stationed in Tahsi for three years, and that during that time, no one had drowned. There were, however, two suicides in which people hurled themselves from cliffs or tall, projecting volcanic rocks along the shoreline into the swirling waters below.
When asked to check the records for the past 10 years, the officer said he wasn't sure if there were any, then he recommended I walk across the street to ask Jeff Sun, the owner of the surf shop across the street.
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