New paths in Taoyuan County’s Siao Wulai District (小烏來) are scheduled to be opened this month aimed at making visiting popular tourist attractions in the area easier, the Siao Wulai Scenic Area Administration Office said.
The walkways offer improved access to Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) former residence in Jiaobanshan (角板山), Lalashan’s (拉拉山) cherry blossoms and the Baling Stargazing Plaza, where visitors can look at the stars or watch the sun come up.
Office director Yeh Tsung-fu (葉宗賦), said the walkways were constructed to address the concerns of visitors over the New Year holidays who complained that there was not a suitable area for watching the sunrise.
Photo: CNA
Aside from remodeling the Baling Village (巴陵) parking lot in Fusing Township (復興) into the Baling Stargazing Plaza, the office also plans to open a 70m-long rope bridge for visitors at the end of this month.
The bridge passes over Daligan River (大利敢溪) and would present the visitors with a view of the Hsiao Wulai waterfalls, Yeh said.
The area has seen extensive additions since 2011, when the office completed its sky bridge project and the subsequent construction of the Huanyu Gazing Platform, which offers a 360-degree unobstructed view of the area, Yeh said.
The Riverside Green Path and the Shuichun Ancient Trail incorporate an area reserved for children and tourists to bathe in the river during the summer, and tourists can also visit the area where Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale was filmed.
The area had more than 600,000 visitors last year, which the office attributed to food vendors and members of staff dressing in traditional Atayal clothing, Yeh said, adding that there were more than 326,000 visitors to the sky bridge.
The area saw the most tourists of all the forest scenic areas north of Greater Taichung and was only slightly less popular than major scenic areas such as Nantou County’s Sitou (溪頭) National Forest Recreation Area, Chiayi County’s Alishan National Scenic Area (阿里山) and Pingtung County’s Kenting National Park, Yeh said.
From this month to next month, trees in the Chienshan area (前山) — the region closest to the mountains on Taiwan’s west coast — will begin to blossom in Taoyuan County’s Dongyenshan (東眼山).
The tree blossom season is expected to peak after Lunar New Year’s Day with cherry blossoms in Kavilan Township (卡維蘭) on the east coast, Yeh said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS