Print

Mail

wiki links

Taroko Gorge tops list for tourist visits

Taroko Gorge National Park in eastern Taiwan saw the highest number of visitors among all of the nation’s national parks in the first half of this year, said the latest Ministry of the Interior tallies, released yesterday.

The nation’s seven national parks received a total of 8.21 million visitors in the January to June period, with Taroko Gorge accounting for 2.53 million, the ministry said.

The number of visitors to Taroko National Park, which spans the counties of Hualien, Taichung and Nantou, marked an increase of more than 240,000 over the level for the same period a year ago.

Second on the list was Yangmingshan National Park — Taiwan’s smallest national park — which is located in the mountainous suburbs of Taipei and received 2.48 million visitors for the January to June period.

The figure marked a decline of more than 700,000 over the previous year’s level, largely because a lengthy cold spell kept many visitors away during the park’s popular flower festival in February and March, the ministry said.

Kenting National Park, the oldest and southernmost national park, received the third-highest number of visitors for the period at 1.48 million.

The figure was also down over the previous year because of the cold spell, as well as a lengthy period of torrential rain in June, the ministry said.

Since the government passed the National Park Act in 1972 to protect the environment, wildlife and history, seven national parks have been established around the island.

Dongsha Marine National Park in the South China Sea is the latest and largest of the parks, covering a total area of nearly 3,540km², which is more than that of all the other parks combined and roughly 10 percent of the size of the whole of Taiwan proper.

The Dongsha Islands (東沙群島) are located 445km southwest of Kaohsiung and consist of Dongsha Island and two coral reefs that are completely submerged at high tide.

As the main purpose of the Dongsha marine park is ecological conservation, the park is not open to visitors.
This story has been viewed 1018 times.