Shei-pa National Park Headquarters today said it is to begin accepting vehicle permit applications starting on Jan. 15 for people visiting the park for multiple days during the Wuling cherry blossom season.
Single-day entry is to be prohibited this year, as the park aims to enforce traffic control measures and tighten entry checks to ensure the smooth operation of local homestays.
As the Wuling cherry blossom season brings flocks of people and vehicles to the park every year, the Highway Bureau is to implement crowd control measures from Feb. 8 to 23, the agency said today in a news release.
Photo: Chang Hsuan-tse, Taipei Times
Shei-pa National Park, spanning Hsinchu County, Miaoli County and Taichung, is to comply in limiting the number of vehicles entering the park and assist Wuling Farm (武陵農場) with issuing permits, it said.
Vehicle permits are not to be granted to single-day entry mountain permit holders this year, so all groups entering or exiting the park via Wuling Farm on a one-day permit, including the trailheads for Hsuehshan (雪山) and the Wuling Quadruple Mountain Trail (武陵四秀登山口), should use public transportation, the agency said.
Multi-day hiking groups may only enter the park in a private vehicle once they have obtained the permit and may park at the Hsuehshan trailhead or the Wuling Lodge parking lot, it said.
Previously, a small number of groups had applied for park entry permits and were issued vehicle passes with no intention of hiking or staying at the local guesthouses, having just come to see the cherry blossoms, which is a violation of the park’s rules during cherry blossom season and would result in a three-year ban from entering the park, it said.
According to agency statistics, 24 people received the three-year ban last year and 28 so far this year.
If hikers are no longer able to use their permits and enter the park, they should cancel their permits online at least five days before their scheduled entry date to allow the space to be given to someone on the waiting list, the agency said.
If for whatever reason hikers cannot cancel the permit within five days, they should contact the park on their planned entry date at the very latest to cancel the permit using the Web site’s mailbox feature, it said.
Once a permit is canceled, any previously issued vehicle passes would be voided, it added.
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