A campaign aimed at boosting the use of the public transportation system has encouraged young people to come up with creative ways to travel around Taiwan.
Participants registered to compete in one of the campaign’s four groups: foreigners, young people, travel writers and local travelers. Those whose highway tour proposals were accepted by the organizer, the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) received -between NT$20,000 and NT$40,000 (US$650 to US$1,300) to execute their travel plan.
Among the teams selected from the young people’s group, Lee Yi-hsuen (李怡萱) of National Chung Cheng University planned her road trip by asking a question: “What is the color of Taiwan?”
Her travel plan involved visiting places in Taiwan that have colors in their names, including the Blue Coast (蔚藍海岸) in Hsinchu County, Golden Town (黃金小鎮) in Miaoli County, the Rainbow Military Dependents’ Village (彩虹眷村) in Greater Taichung and the Orange Line of the Kaohsiung MRT system. She also took photographs of billboards containing color words.
She said she discovered stories about Taiwan through her search of colors.
She added that traveling by bus allowed her to experience the lives of the local people.
“The bus trip was exciting and adventurous,” Lee said. “You never know whom you will see and what will happen at the next stop.”
Liu Chia-hao (劉家豪) and Wu Shu-chun (吳書寯) of National Chiayi University wanted to explore the traditional religions of Taiwan by visiting 22 different temples around the nation, including Xingtien and Longshan temples in Taipei City and Cheng Huang Temple in Hsinchu City.
The two traveled to each temple mainly by bus and stayed at pilgrims’ accommodations provided by the temples.
Two sisters, Hsu Yu-ting (許郁婷) and Hsu Yun-wei (許芸瑋), were interested in exploring some of the unique communities around the nation.
Their trip has taken them from Lugang (鹿港) Township in Changhwa County to the Wumile Community (無米樂社區) in Greater Tainan and the Taitung Railway Art Village.
The DGH said that it had selected a total of 18 teams from these four groups of participants. The top prize in each group is NT$50,000.
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