Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞) was in Taipei yesterday to promote tourism in Taitung, introducing special discounts for tourists and inviting the public to enjoy the beauty and bounty of the east coast.
“Taitung is a place with beautiful mountains and fields, a 160km coastline on the Pacific, a rich blend of Aboriginal, Hakka and Hoklo cultures, as well as gourmet food and fresh farm produce,” Kuang told a news conference. “Some people have told me that when they traveled to Taitung for the first time, they felt as though they had walked into paradise.”
In addition to Hoklos and Hakkas, there are six Aboriginal tribes in Taitung — the Amis, the Puyuma, the Paiwan, the Rukai, the Bunun and the Tao — “making traveling in Taitung a very unique cultural experience,” she said.
The East Rift Valley (花東縱谷), bounded by the Central Mountain Range on the west and the Coastal Mountain Range on the east, is famous for producing high-quality rice and other agricultural products, she said.
Taitung also offers “bamboo coffee,” described by its grower Juan Yung-kuang (阮勇光) as the best-kept secret in Taitung.
“There are some great coffee growers in Taitung, but not many people know about it,” Juan said behind a table on which he displayed coffee beans from his farm in Beinan Township (卑南).
“I put fresh coffee beans in bamboo pipes and let a natural fermentation process take place,” Juan said, explaining how “bamboo coffee” — which is only found in Taitung — is made.
“Beans can be kept there for about a year or so. Just take out the beans, grind them and make coffee whenever you like,” he said. “Every sip of the coffee has the fragrance of the bamboo.”
To promote tourism, Kuang said in a press release that the county government, local tourism authorities and 60 tourism-related businesses had developed a “Taitung Tourist Passport” that gives travelers discounts on lodging, food, entrance fees and souvenirs at participating stores and tourist sites.
More information about the discounts is available online at www.erv-nsa.gov.tw.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
RSS