Over the past couple of years the sport of paragliding has, and with no pun intended, taken off in Taiwan. The nation now boasts over a dozen clubs who ply their trade from Pingtung to Keelung.
On any given weekend scores of novice, semi-serious and hardcore paragliders now leap off out-of-the-way cliff faces with parachutes strapped to their backs and soar through the skies over Taiwan.
In celebration of the nation's new found love for the somewhat precarious sport, Taitung County Government (
PHOTO COURTESY OF LUYUE TOWNSHIP COUNCIL
Jointly sponsored by the National Council of Physical Fitness and Sports (
The largest paragliding happening ever held in Taiwan, the regatta already has well over 1,000 participants representing all of the nation's paragliding clubs. Novice paragliders need not apply, however. The distance along with the mountainous terrain the regatta's course is set to cover means that organizers are only accepting applications from experienced paragliders. The reason, according to organizers, is simply because "there is the possibility of strong winds which could cause problems for inexperienced flyers."
The course, which covers a distance of 80km, will see participants taking off from the Luyue Tea Plantation and Scenic Area (
While some participants will, no doubt, be looking to arrive at the designated finish in record time, the event is not a free-for-all race. For safety reasons organizers have plotted a special course, which all those taking part will have to adhere to, or else face the possibility of disqualification.
"Obviously we couldn't have hundreds of paragliders flying hither and thither. It would create all sorts of problems and become a nightmare," explained a spokesperson for Luyue Town Council. "They will fly over some rather inhospitable areas that could prove difficult for safety crews to access in the unfortunate event of an accident."
Although the regatta is only open to those with paragliding experience, both the organizers and the numerous clubs who will be participating in the event hope that the event will prove popular with spectators, stoking more interest in the latest sporting fad to sweep Taiwan.
Many of the clubs will be holding paragliding demonstrations as well as taking advance bookings for lessons during this event. With not only southern clubs, but also northern clubs such as those based in Hsinchuang and Ilan in attendance, there are plenty of opportunities for people all around the island.
The 2003 Desire to Fly Festival (
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and