Business

New Taipei City shifts into high gear with tourism

Merchants at Jiufen see tourism as a key driver for the local economy. (Photos courtesy of New Taipei City Government)

• Publication Date：06/16/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Meg Chang

Like other municipalities in Taiwan and throughout the world, the New Taipei City Government is keen on promoting tourism and increasing revenues, with its officials on the lookout for ways to make attractions more inviting to local and international visitors. The city’s recent attempts at remaking Shuijinjiu, three small towns located in close proximity to one another, have been particularly successful.

“The provision of secure, cheap and convenient public transportation is a prerequisite for mass-market tourism,” said Lee Wen, commissioner of the city’s Tourism and Travel Department. “That’s why we have been working on upgrading transportation facilities to our tourist attractions, starting with the tri-villages, which are some of the municipality’s most popular vacation destinations.”

“Shui-jin-jiu” is a clipped form made from the first characters of the names of the three towns in question— Shuinandong, Jinguashi and Jiufen—explained Lee. “The city government is promoting the trio under this name because it is frequently used by the locals anyway and because Shuijinjiu sounds good—it means ‘lasting beauty’ in Taiwanese,” he said.

“While we believe this branding strategy will help spur further growth in the number of visitors, our major goal is really to make the overall traveling experience to these locales more enjoyable,” he added. Toward this end, Lee said, the city government has made an effort to make Shuijinjiu more accessible by public transportation.

Once a prosperous town filled with fortune seekers who flocked there to try their luck during the local gold rush, Jiufen’s heyday ended in the 1960s after its gold mines were depleted, with many of its residents moving away. But this unfortunate turn of events may have been a blessing in disguise, as a lack of development plans left the place almost unchanged for decades and allowed Jiufen to preserve most of its past, including its old streets and nostalgic atmosphere reminiscent of the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945) and the post-World War II period, Lee said.

The Crown Prince Chalet in Jinguashi offers visitors a glimpse into Japanese colonial rule.

Just a few kilometers away, Jinguashi is equally famous for its old streets and historical relics such as the Miner’s Canteen and the Prisoner of War Memorial for Allied soldiers captured by the Japanese imperial forces in Singapore during WW II. The Gold Ecological Park, which includes the Crown Prince Chalet, Gold Museum and Gold Waterfall, is also well worth a visit, Lee added.

The two locales received international attention for being the shooting sites of “A City of Sadness,” a feature production by Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien, after the movie won the Golden Lion Award for best film at the Venice Film Festival in 1989. Jiufen is also the setting inspiration of “Spirited Away,” an award-winning movie by renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.

Thanks in part to the free publicity that came with the two movies, Lee said, local tourism has been growing at a double-digit pace for years now, with more than 3.35 million vacationers visiting the area in 2011. Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau were the leading sources of foreign tourists.

The least famous of the three, Shuinandong is mostly known as the best viewing spot for the famous Yin-Yang Sea, a geological wonder of a bay with a mix of yellow and blue waters. The place has quickly emerged as a new tourist attraction after an increasing number of artists settled in this quiet little town for its unassuming beauty and relaxing atmosphere.

The city government saw the potential of Shuinandong and decided to contract out the operation and management of the local tourist center to those artists, he said. Some of the underutilized public facilities have also been transformed into art studios, venues for experience courses and even lodging houses for backpackers.

“We don’t really need to worry about attracting more travelers to the area,” said Lee. “All we need to do is to make visiting these places more convenient, with a focus on providing seamless transportation arrangements that can take tourists to all of the area’s major attractions.” While this kind of service may appear natural enough, “a lack of such arrangements seems to be the case in most of Taiwan’s major attractions outside the metropolitan areas,” the official pointed out.

According to Lee, the government began discussions with Keelung Bus Co. a few years ago and the two worked out a regular route from downtown Taipei to Jinguashi, from where visitors can make bus connections to Jiufen. “Beginning this May, a minivan service now connects the two villages to Shuinandong, and thus the last link for travel among the trio is completed.” Local taxi drivers are also contributing their share by decorating their vehicles with special paint work to identify themselves as visitor-friendly cabbies.

The visitor center at Shuinandong doubles as an exhibition hall that allows visitors to interact with resident artists.

The municipality’s efforts have paid off, as Ruifang District, in which the three villages are located, was named one of Taiwan’s Top 10 charismatic towns in a nationwide competition organized by the Tourism Bureau this March. The local government was awarded NT$500,000 (US$17,700) for future promotional activities, with the area expected to be the focus of the bureau’s upcoming international promotional campaigns.

According to one of the competition referees, Lee Wei-wen, easy access by public transportation was the deciding factor in his evaluation. “With carbon reduction being the talk of the day, traveling by car is no longer a preferable choice. In addition, taking public transportation is a great way for visitors to interact with locals and experience the real taste of life in Taiwan.”

The referee believes Ruifang is a good example in this regard. “Visitors can reach the district’s tourist attractions by convenient public transportation. This arrangement is particularly appealing to individual tourists from abroad who are keen on experiencing the part of the island that is less promoted than the Taipei 101 or National Palace Museum, and yet more reflective of the country’s everyday life.”

New Taipei City’s Lee welcomed these comments, saying that they represent a vote of confidence in the municipality’s policy direction. “We believe many tourists will concur that Ruifang’s inclusion in the elite group is well deserved.”

In addition to continuing improving transportation, the official said other major projects in the pipeline include similar promotional campaigns for Pingxi, the site for the annual sky lantern festival. “The spur railway line of Pingxi is a very popular attraction, and we are brainstorming for measures to bring more visitors to the town.”

A longer-term plan is to develop low carbon tourism at Shuangxi, another small town blessed with an unspoiled ecological system and challenging hiking trails just on the outskirts of the metropolitan area. “We are envisioning a vacation destination for the more recreational type of visitors who enjoy physical challenges. The idea should be particularly appealing to those who crave for a weekend getaway from the hustle and bustle of urban life.” (HZW)

Write to Meg Chang at sfchang@mail.mofa.gov.tw