Residents of the Truku Aboriginal village of Mukumuqi, a popular tourist attraction in Hualien County because of its natural scenery, yesterday blocked the only road leading to the village in protest against crowds of tourists who the villagers said harm residents’ quality of life and the environment.
Holding up banners reading: “There is only destruction, not ecology,” “There is tourism, but no respect” and “We are not Jiuzhaigou [九寨溝] of Hualien” — referring to a comparison that some tour operators make between the Mukumuqi Gorges and a tourist destination also known for its natural scenery in China — residents stopped minibuses full of tourists at the entrance to the village yesterday.
Prior to blocking the road, the residents performed a ritual at a monument erected in remembrance of 39 villagers who were buried by mudslides triggered by Typhoon Ofelia in 1990 by firing gunshots into the air and sending up smoke signals, declaring to their ancestral spirits their determination to defend their traditional territory.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
“It’s not that we do not welcome visitors, but since our village has been opened to outside visitors in 2006, there have been on average more than 100 minibuses bringing in about 3,000 visitors per day on holidays,” village council chairman Masaw said.
“The large number of vehicles has polluted the air, creates traffic jams on the roads and makes it difficult for us to go to work in the fields,” he added.
Rakaw Didi, a spokesman for the village, which is administratively known as Tongmen Village (銅門), said that to maintain the village’s ecology and quality of life, the village council passed resolutions at the end of last month to close off the village for a year and to ask future visitors to enter into the village on foot, not in cars.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
“Masses of tourists have caused too much damage to the environment in our village, so we would like to ask the police to stop issuing entry permits for a year, so that the ecosystem can recover,” Rakaw said.
“After a year, we would also like to ask tourists to visit on foot, not in cars,” Rakaw said.
Rakaw added that the resolutions have been forwarded to the township office.
In addition, Rakaw said that tourism has not only damaged the environment, but has also caused misunderstandings about the tribe’s history and culture.
“Most of the tour guides are from outside [the village]. They do not understand our history and culture, and do not study our history and culture, so they often dish out misinformation to tourists,” he said.
“Some tour agencies gave Mukumuqi the title ‘Jiuzhaigou of Hualien,’ but we do not want to be compared to the tourist destination in China. We are Mukumuqi,” he said.
Some tourists decided to cancel their trips after running into the protest, while others agreed to get off their buses and go into the village on foot.
Responding to the call by the villagers, Jian Police Precinct deputy chief Wen Chun-ming (溫俊明) said police are not authorized to turn down legal applications for entry permits.
Yesterday’s protest was the villagers’ latest move to protect their traditional territory, following a successful action at the end of last year and early this year to stop the Forestry Bureau from unilaterally deciding to cut down trees in the village and shipping them out.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS