Tourists who visit the central Taiwanese city of Taichung will get a hands-on experience that will help them truly understand the lifestyle of a place often overlooked by foreign tourists, tourism industry officials said recently. Instead of just sightseeing and shopping, they can learn to make Taiwan’s famous beverage — bubble tea — invented in the city or do other DIY activities.
Since last year, Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau and local businesses have been setting up tourism activities that offer tourists an in-depth understanding of local culture.
For example, Chun Shui Tang Cultural Tea House, a famous bubble tea maker, offers lessons on making the popular beverage. A course that allows tourists to hand-shake their own beverage — complete with marble-sized black tapioca balls at the bottom of the cup — has been met with overwhelming demand.
Tea house project manager Angela Liu said eight months after the program was initiated, some 300 foreign tourists had tried it.
“It’s interesting to see how people of different cultural backgrounds react to tea-making,” Liu said, explaining that Japanese tourists spend a lot of time examining the details of the tea leaves, while Americans treat the tea as if it were beer to toast to each other with.
Likewise, the Pao Chuan Food Industry Co, which is known for its suncakes — round flat cakes containing malt sugar — also provides workshops so tourists can make the one-of-a-kind desserts.
“You can tell from the fact that most of the cakes the tourists made are not round-shaped that they are full of creativity,” said Ko Yueh-min (柯悅敏), shop manager of the century-old cake-maker.
She said the cakes came in a wide variety of shapes, including the outline of Taiwan, Chinese word characters and even cartoon figures like Anpanman.
The campaign to offer tourists a unique experience is being spearheaded by the iSee Taiwan Foundation, which works with the Tourism Bureau to promote in-depth travel in Taichung.
The goal of the campaign is to market the city’s carefree atmosphere and differentiate Taichung, making it stand out among other competitors in central Taiwan such as key scenic attractions Sun Moon Lake and the Alishan National Scenic Area, foundation officials said.
Taichung is often ignored by foreign tourists due to its lack of natural scenery. Organizers hope the tourism promotion campaign will not only attract more tourists to Taichung, but also enable the city to “make friends” with the world, providing an emotional connection with foreign visitors so they would come back again, said Susan Yeh (葉樹姍), director-general of Taichung’s Cultural Affairs Bureau.
“Taichung gives people a sense that it’s full of potential,” she said. “We hope our programs could allow tourists to not only enjoy the mood, but also become part of the inspiration.”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard