The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism yesterday announced that it has chosen entertainer Mickey Huang (黃子佼) as its tourism ambassador to Malaysia.
Malaysian visitors to Taipei increased about 10 percent last year from 2016, department Commissioner Chen Su-yu (陳思宇) said, adding that the Southeast Asian nation is one of the city’s major sources of international tourists.
“Malaysia has two groups of tourists, Muslims and those of Chinese descent,” Chen said.
Photo: Pan Shao-tang, Taipei Times
“The city aims to provide facilities that are friendly to Muslim tourists. Tourists of Chinese descent like finding delicious food and unique cultural experiences on the streets or in the alleys when they visit Taipei,” Chen said.
“Huang is an expert in this field and can show us aspects of Taipei that most people are not aware of,” Chen said.
Huang, who has been nominated for the Popular Music Radio Program award at the Golden Bell Awards, said that he was honored to be Taipei’s tourism ambassador to Malaysia, as he was born and raised in the city and has lived there all his life.
“I have been talking about Taipei on my radio show and on Facebook. I have traveled to many cities around the world and Taipei is a city where things are easily accessible,” Huang said.
“It has a well-preserved culture, and in it one sees the coexistence of modernity and tradition, as well as fashion and nostalgia,” he said.
There are many things to do in Taipei, including visiting coffee houses in Wanhua District’s (萬華) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area, shopping and eating at 24-hour ramen restaurants in Xinyi District (信義) and hot spring dips in Beitou District (北投), he said.
International visitors can try pastries at bakery chain Kuo Yuan Yi, which was founded in Shilin District (士林) in 1867, he said.
They can try the shaved ice at Ice Monster, which was rated by CNN as one of the best desserts in the world.
The department also invited Malaysian celebrity chef Datuk Fazley Yaakob and a group of Malaysian journalists to take a four-day tour of Taipei.
Fazley Yaakob, who has visited Taipei twice before, demonstrated how to make Malay-style fried chicken at a news conference, using meat from Fried Chicken Master.
“I loved shopping at the night markets and saw how Taiwanese prepare food,” Fazley Yaakob said.
“Whenever people in Malaysia ask me why I go to Taipei over and over again, I tell them there are many gems in Taipei that I have not yet discovered,” he said, adding that stinky tofu, shaved ice and fruit are the foods he enjoys the most.
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