As if the waterfront were not enough, there is now something new to do when you visit Tamsui. Added to the usual itinerary of strolling down the town's old streets, tasting the local snacks and watching the sunset over the Tamsui River, you can now go photograph Tamsui's new mounted police.
At the Taipei County Police Bureau Mounted Unit's (台北縣政府警察局騎警隊) inauguration ceremony at Tamsui's Fishermen's Wharf on April 19, curious onlookers crowded round to catch a glimpse of the 18 policemen and policewomen who make up the unit.
Tourists of all ages were excited to see this unit take to the streets, seeming to echo County Commissioner Su Chen-chang's (蘇貞昌) words at the ceremony: "In the future, our countrymen won't have to go abroad to realize their childhood dream of taking photos with mounted police."
They are Taiwan's first mounted police force. Despite complaints of an insufficient budget, the 10 male and eight female police officers were clad in crimson uniforms with a golden insignia, costing NT$60,000.
The uniforms where eye-catching enough, but the height of the officers -- all men are above 175cm and women over 160cm ? along with a ready smile and a knack for striking a pose with their mounts, seems to suggest that they will be more than up the to task of becoming the townships premier tourist attraction.
Apart from standing watch at Fishermen's wharf in Tamshui, the mounted police's duties will include patrolling the area around the recently opened Shihsanhang Museum of Archeology (十三行博物館) in Pali and the recently cleaned-up Erchung Waterfront Park (二重疏洪道親水公園) in Sanchung.
Teams of two, a man and a woman, will be on patrol at these locations from 9am to 11am and from 3pm to 5pm on weekends and national holidays. They will put on a three-minute show of formation riding every hour, the better for tourists to photograph them.
Riders from the Taipei County Riding Club (台北縣馬術推廣中心) will initially patrol with the teams to provide technical assistance, should it be required.
The creation of this mounted police unit was inspired by its existing counterparts abroad, said Wang Chin-yuan (王景源), a Taipei County councilor. "During a research trip to the Czech Republic last year, we saw the mounted police perform to the admiration of tourists. They loved the mounted police so much they posed with the police for photos. It was like when we Taiwanese see a snowstorm, we rush outside when the local residents all rush indoors. Tourists like to see something novel, something that offers a fresh experience. Mounted police are just such a thing."
Wang cited the performances by the elite military police at the entrance of the Martyrs' Shrine in Taipei to show that similar sights have proved very popular with tourists.
The idea of creating a mounted police unit had been suggested to the Taipei County Police Bureau before this but had not met with a positive response until Huang Mao-suei (黃茂穗), a long-time rider himself, took the position of bureau chief.
The mounted police, Wang predicted, will appeal most to domestic and Chinese tourists.
In China, in Yuyi county, Jiangsu Province, and Wenzhou county, Zhejiang Province, all-female mounted units have been established in the past two years to promote tourism.
"At present, visitors to Tamsui experience the town by way of tasting its an a-gei (阿給), iron eggs, or ice cream -- the local specialties. The mounted police are meant to be something more, a spectacle," Wang said.
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