The Jewel at the Heart of Taiwan: Sun Moon Lake
Travelers heading to Sun Moon Lake from the south can enjoy a scenic journey through Jiji and Shuili, with the option to take the Jiji Branch Railway to Checheng and then a bus to Shuishe.
tourism bureau
The Rundown: PMI Increase, New Tourism Website, and Property Development Boom
A weekly snapshot of Taiwan business news stories brought to you by CommonWealth and AmCham Taiwan’s TOPICS Manufacturing Activity Continues to Flourish The Chung-Hwa Institution for Economic Research (CIER) announced on September 1 that its Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) had fallen 3.1 points in August to 62.1. Although the PMI has maintained a score of…
Getting in Hot Water: Welcome to Taiwan’s Geothermal Springs
If you have never been to a hot spring, the time is surely right for you to take a stress-busting hot-spring vacation in “the Heart of Asia.” Thanks to encouraging news from scientists working on coronavirus vaccines, people are once again daring to hope that international leisure travel can resume within months. When the door…
The Astounding Highlands in the Heart of Taiwan
Taichung is an excellent launchpad for anyone wishing to explore the stunning mountains that crowd Taiwan’s interior. The city encompasses intensively farmed coastal lowlands, mid-elevation landscapes, and expanses of high-altitude wilderness within Shei-Pa National Park. At the same time, Taichung’s thoroughly modern core area, home to over half its 2.8 million residents, has more than…
The Lily and the Butterfly: Mountain Motifs in Taiwan’s South
For centuries, the Central Mountain Range that stretches nearly the length of Taiwan blocked the eastward progress of Han Chinese pioneers settling the western lowlands. As a result, the traditional cultures and lifestyles of the Austronesian indigenous people in the east remained largely intact until the 1895-1945 period of Japanese colonial rule. Some of the…
Exploring the Destination Management Organization Model
As Taiwan looks for ways to revitalize its international tourism industry once the coronavirus pandemic eases, part of the effort may be to implement what is known as a Destination Management Organization (DMO) program. The Travel and Tourism Committee section of AmCham Taipei’s 2020 Taiwan White Paper applauded the Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s plans to implement…
For a Shortcut to the Heart of Taiwan, Ride a Bike
The story is one that people working in Taiwan’s tourism industry hear again and again. A visitor had stopped to look at a map, take photos, or adjust a bicycle chain when passers-by came over to offer assistance. The end of the story is always: “The people here are incredibly kind and friendly.” You don’t…
Seeing the Island on Two Wheels: the Taiwan Cycling Festival
Taiwan’s emergence as a world-class cycling destination is no surprise. The island boasts a fabulous diversity of coastal, lowland, and highland environments. Thanks to the subtropical location, it is possible to go cycling almost every day of the year. The highway network is extensive, and because so many Taiwanese commute by motorcycle or scooter, motorists…
The Mountains of North Taiwan
By the standards of Taiwan’s vertiginous interior, neither Greater Taipei nor neighboring Yilan County are especially mountainous. Even so, visitors who confine themselves to the north never lack opportunities to hike, mountain bike, or simply enjoy scenery through the window of a car or a bus. At 1,120 meters (3,675 feet), Mount Qixing, the no….
Yushan: The Roof of Northeast Asia
When the Japanese conducted the first comprehensive topographical survey of Taiwan, shortly after seizing control of the island in 1895, they were stunned to discover that their new colony had at least three mountains higher than their own beloved Mount Fuji. The island’s tallest point was given the Japanese name Niitakayama (“New Highest Mountain”), and…