Taiwan Today

Keelung Port’s focus on welcoming cruise ships is a boon to the city and its environs.
 

On July 23, Keelung Port on the northern tip of Taiwan welcomed the greatest number of passengers from international cruise ships since March, when the first vessels returned to the country’s largest cruise home port after pandemic control measures were lifted. Port authorities made the most of the COVID-19 border closures by focusing on improvements to passenger service facilities that now allow rapid customs clearance of up to 2,100 people an hour. This year, the port administration estimates that it will receive 270,000 visitors from 140 cruise ship arrivals, and next year is expected to appraoch 2019’s 946,000 visitors from 595 ships. Kao Chwan-kai (高傳凱), president of Taiwan International Ports Corp.’s Keelung Port, enumerated the ways the port is striving for a bigger share of the tourism market. “The port has upgraded its passenger service centers in addition to organizing staff observation trips to visit cruise ship companies and harbors in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and various European countries,” Kao said.
 

The work is paying off: in 2017, Keelung earned the title of Asia’s best cruise home port at the Asia Cruise Forum Jeju in South Korea. At the same event five years later, Keelung took home a Special Achievement Award from Jeju-based Asia Cruise Leaders Network for its post-pandemic business recovery. Kao noted that as the numbers of cruise ships visiting Keelung grow, itineraries are changing. In the past, international cruise tourists to Keelung accounted for just 20 percent of total passengers. Today, the number has risen to 50 percent. Additionally, Kao said that Keelung is hosting more vessels from high-end cruise lines and has seen an increasing number of visitors opt for the hybrid fly-cruise model, in which travelers arrive at a port via plane, then enjoy the rest of their vacation aboard a ship. “Keelung Port’s proximity to the city’s main train station is unique among major harbors and provides passengers with quick, easy access to the Taipei City metropolitan area,” the president said.

Expanding Portfolio

“When a country’s economic growth advances, its port functions must diversify and contribute to community development by promoting leisure and tourism industries in addition to the traditional cargo import-export services,” Kao said. He emphasized Keelung’s importance as a northern marine transport hub in tandem with neighboring New Taipei City’s Taipei Port. The latter is overseen by the Keelung office, which also administers Suao Port in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County.
 

From 2020 to 2022, Keelung saw an average cargo throughput equivalent to 1.55 million 20-foot containers each year, an increase from pre-pandemic numbers. Earlier this year, three gantry cranes were added to further boost cargo handling capacity. The port area’s warehouse storage volume expanded by 6,750 square meters in 2021 and is expected to bring an additional 3,137 square meters into service by the end of this year. To enhance overall operational efficiency, a smart energy management system and an artificial intelligence-assisted surveillance center are soon to come online to cover the area around the port.
 

In line with the international vision to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the port area has conducted environmental initiatives such as planting more than 12,000 trees per year and setting up solar power generation facilities. These actions were recognized by an EcoPort certification from the European Sea Ports Organization in 2015. Earlier this year, Keelung won an Environmental, Social and Governance Sustainable Logistics Award in the workplace sustainability category from the Taipei-based Global Logistics and Commerce Council of Taiwan. The port also entered the World Ports Sustainability Awards organized by Tokyo-based International Association of Ports and Harbors with a submission that emphasized the need for ports to play a role in facilitating closer relations with their surrounding cities. Underpinning this link, in March the port became a recognized site under the 2011 Environmental Education Act as a result of collaboration with Keelung City Government and local civic groups, Kao said.

Cultural Draws

The preservation of collective memories and the restoration of heritage structures are vital to a vibrant city, Kao said, citing the ongoing refurbishment project at Gaoyuan New Village as a perfect example of collaboration between the port and the city of Keelung. The area’s houses, built in the 1930s during the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945) as residences for officials who supervised the port’s construction, were used by the port as employee dormitories after World War II. Since 2006, they have been managed and maintained by the port authority under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act.
 

As part of a national campaign targeting dozens of major heritage locations across Taiwan, several sites around Keelung Port and nearby Heping Island have been renovated since 2017 to help people reconnect with the city’s past. The area was an early point of contact for Western seafarers in the early 17th century during the Age of Exploration, said Ling Jia-bin (凌家斌), head of the Spatial Planning Division under the city’s Department of Urban Development. The department, which staffs the city-port platform taskforce, started another project earlier this year to facilitate academic exchanges with Keelung’s National Taiwan Ocean University to enable business applications of research results and provide internships in areas like smart technologies and port management.
 

As the port rebalances land usage to better meet transport, defense and development needs and transfers increasing cargo volumes to Taipei Port, there is more space for commercial diversification. Business R&D centers, libraries, museums, art spaces and music venues in the waterfront area are all possibilities under current urban planning schemes, according to Ling, who has set the department’s sights on shaping an engaging gateway to Taiwan. “Keelung is the first experience many international tourists have of the country and we want them to come away impressed,” he said.
 

The port’s vitality infuses the rest of the city, as seen in the surrounding hills, where construction of a new landmark is nearing completion. Keelung Tower, with a skywalk link to the elaborate and culturally significant Zhupu Altar, will draw cruise ship passengers with its panoramic view of the port. Ling also called attention to the planned Mass Rapid Transit system in Keelung that will connect the port neighborhood to Taipei’s Nangang Station by way of New Taipei’s Xizhi District. “These infrastructure investments combine to highlight our lovely mountains, bay and cityscape in a way that honors the connections between port and city,” he said. 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw