Marked by its natural beauty, Hualien, in eastern Taiwan, is well known among international tourists. Is there any chance of its developing into something more? With joint efforts from local and central governments, is it possible that Taiwan's third science park will appear in Hualien?
"To reserve a clean land in the world of mortals." This is the ideal of an islandwide charity campaign launched in 1991 mainly by Tzu Chi, a Buddhist humanitarian group known for its involvement in the international community. Tzu Chi has branches and offices on the island and abroad, but how many people know that Hualien, in eastern Taiwan, is home to this philanthropic organization?
That Tzu Chi is based in Hualien is more than coincidence, since the city has long been looked at as a pristine area. Such an impression is inevitable in that Hualien County is the largest administrative region on the island (it is one-eighth the size of Taiwan), whereas its entire population numbers no more than 360,000. So in this county with lofty mountains on one side and the broad expanse of the Pacific Ocean on the other, humans are dwarfed and nature can reveal its original face. Without a doubt, compared with many other places in Taiwan, Hualien is a clean land, and has greater potential for becoming a haven for people feeling drowned by the hurly-burly of a highly industrialized and materialistic society.
Hualien is destined to develop its tourism industry. "About eighty percent of our clients are here for sightseeing," says Eric T.C. Lee, general manager of Chinatrust Hotel in Hualien. In fact, Chinatrust, which now has six hotels around Taiwan, first looked at Hualien as a place with great potential to be a tourist territory a long time ago. It chose to establish its second hotel in Hualien in 1981, after the success of its first at Sun Moon Lake, another top tourist spot on the island. Today, according to Lee, competition is fierce as Hualien has seen the rising of new hotels, such as the Grand Formosa Hotel located at Taroko Gorge, perhaps the best-known scenic spot to foreigners on the island. "So our hotel [in Hualien City] makes less profit than it did ten years ago. But on the whole, I think today in Hualien the tourist sector is performing better than before --especially in terms of the domestic market."
Hualien City is where most visitors stay before making contact with the rest of the county; consequently, with about 110,000 residents, this most populous of thirteen administrative districts within Hualien County must create a new image. In this regard, an obvious example of the local government's effort is the building of "a city of marble"--a project carried out years ago by paving the sidewalks around the city with marble. Marble is one of the major stones found in Hualien, where an international stone-carving festival is held every two years.
Wang Ching-feng, magistrate of Hualien County, refers to another two important public constructions that have been done in recent years in Meilun, on Hua-lien City's north side. First, the Meilun River, which runs through the city, has been dredged, and the riverbanks have been fortified to prevent floods during the typhoon season (a perennial problem for Hualien residents). At the same time, a thirty-acre portion of the Meilun Hill was reclaimed by the local government at the end of 1995 and turned into the city's top recreational park.
In anticipation of the construction of a sports park on Hualien City's west side, the local government has purchased all the land necessary for the sixty-four-acre area. It will be suitable for large-scale activities, with wide open spaces that will include Hualien's biggest stadium and first baseball diamond. The park is expected to enhance the quality of life of about 200,000 people in the city and two neighboring townships. Of course, like other city renewal projects, it will not hurt local tourism.
Yeh Yao-hui, head of Hualien City, argues for another improvement. According to Yeh, if Hualien wants to seek a breakthrough in its tourist industry, Hualien Harbor on the city's northeast side must be transformed from a merely commer cial port to one of recreational value. "There's never been a close tie between Hualien City and Hualien Harbor. For a long time, the harbor's been nothing more than a place for import-export activities," he remarks, adding that people cannot even gain access to the harbor area and that there are many restrictions placed on boaters who wish to anchor there.
Indeed, if Hualien Harbor can be well used to attract tourists, it will give local tourism a boost. Lee of Chinatrust Hotel observes that while Hualien's mountains are utilized as tourist resources, its seacoast areas are not. "Yachting is still forbid den. But I hope in the future Hualien Harbor can be developed into a place for this kind of activity." Similarly, Yeh argues that it's time for Hualien to look to the ocean to develop its tourism. "Not every county has this privilege. Does Taipei or Taoyuan have its own port?" he asks. "You know, San Francisco has Fisherman's Wharf. Why can't Hualien City develop a similar attraction, since we have a pier area too?"
Through his communications with port authorities under the central government, Yeh infers that they also understand Hualien Harbor must undergo a transformation in the future. But when? That's the big question. Meanwhile, Yeh has another great expectation that the city should get more financial support from the central government. "Hualien City has great poten tial to become an international tourist town, but we're very short of money from the central government." According to Yeh, the government budget for every Hualien resident is only one-fifteenth of that for every Taipei City dweller. "People in Hualien City wouldn't feel comfortable with such a comparison. They'd feel like second-class citizens."
The Hualien County magistrate also calls on the central government to be more emphatic about the development of eastern Taiwan in general and Hualien specifically, though he admits that in the past ten years the area has made a lot of progress because of an increased budget. According to the county government, the budget increased by 25.2 percent from fiscal years 1994 to 1999. However, there is never enough money, and for Hualien the problem is obvious because of its weakness in the political arena. At present, in the 225-seat Legislative Yuan, only three members are from Hualien. The reason for this seeming disparity is that the number of legislative seats a county can elect is contingent on its population; therefore, despite Hualien County's size and its budgetary needs, the disproportionately low population of the area means that its legislators will be outnumbered in comparison with those from more densely populated counties around the island.
"Many public servants and legislators are elected from cities and counties in western Taiwan, and their voices are louder than ours when competing for budgets," observes the magistrate. He argues that the central government should step in with a resolution to end this unfair game, saying that today there is no need to focus on the already well-developed west. "Over -development can lead to problems--a high crime rate and other social problems, for example. You know, an overweight child will become ill if you just keep feeding it. So why not give some food to a kid who's undernourished and hungry?"
Hualien's development is also closely related to the construction projects undertaken by the central government to control traffic conditions. "The transportation between Hualien and the rest of the island is the most important issue for Hualien's people. If this problem can't be solved, there won't be any future for Hualien," according to the magistrate.
At present, most people travel to Hualien by either train or plane, since there is still no freeway between Hualien and Taipei or other major cities around the island, whereas the one between Taipei and Kaohsiung was built in 1978. However, inclement weather at times necessitates the closing of the Hualien Airport for domestic flights, because its facilities are not quite state-of-the-art. As to travel by rail, Yeh Yao-hui explains that "often all seats are taken, especially on holidays. This is the only 'golden route' that makes profits for the Taiwan Railway Administration."
Because of this state of affairs and with a view to making Hualien more accessible to foreign guests, the Hualien Airport will be transformed into an international one, with work slated to begin this fall. With regard to the railway between Taipei and Hualien, a project for increasing the current single-rail system to double rails is already underway. Also, the central government is building a freeway from Taipei to Hualien via Ilan, and considering the feasibility of developing a new one from Hualien through the Central Range to Taichung. These two freeways would enable one to spend only about two hours traveling between Taipei and Hualien or between Taichung and Hualien--less than half the time currently used for the trips.
It is apparent that much should be done to facilitate the traffic systems connected to Hualien--an area that is sometimes referred to in Chinese as "behind the mountains" (a term also applied to the entire eastern area of Taiwan). According to Shen Chung-yuan, who teaches at National Open University in Hualien, the vexations of the traffic situation are the reason one of the three legislators from Hualien has remained on the Transportation and Communications Committee of the Legislative Yuan. Another Hualien legislator is an aborigine elected by indigenous people, with a special interest in their issues. The third legislator is on the National Defense Committee, and Shen observes that such a choice also has a lot to do with local devel opment. The reason is that the ROC government still owns about eighty percent of Hualien's land, with much of it under the control of the military. "Times have changed. I think it's time to negotiate with the Ministry of National Defense and ask it to release land not necessary for national defense purposes," Shen states. "Then the land can be used by the private sector, for the sake of Hualien's future development."
An improved traffic system will surely benefit the Hualien Ocean Park and the Hualien Ideal World, two large tourist attractions located in the neighboring township south of Hualien City. Part of the effort by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) of the Executive Yuan to develop eastern Taiwan, these two projects have been funded by the private sector and based in part on public land. Scheduled to open in the first years of the new century, they are projected to help raise Hualien's employment rate and at the same time stimulate local tourism phenomenally. "In the early days, Hualien's tourism relied very much on world-class Taroko Gorge. But today there should be more than that. I expect that these two new spots can bring more visitors to Hualien," says Lee of Chinatrust Hotel in Hualien.
Industries other than tourism are also expected to help shape a future for Hualien, such as the high-tech industry pro moted by the local administration as well as the central government. "Hualien should follow a course that develops the high -tech industries, since they bring the least pollution to the environment," the magistrate says. Such an ideal may have sounded impractical before, but today Hualien even has the potential to establish another science park on the island, thanks to the founding of National Dong Hwa University in the rural township of Shofeng, Hualien County, in 1994.
Comprising the College of Science and Technology, the College of Management, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dong Hwa is the first university in eastern Taiwan and is much relied on to facilitate local development. "We have close relationships with the local government. We know how much our getting established meant to them," explains Juhwen Hwang, an associate professor in the Institute of Business Management at Dong Hwa. A group of scholars from different fields in Dong Hwa are now doing research on various aspects of Hualien, including its human resources, tourism, industrial development, and environmental protection. "We often meet with the local government, learn more about Hualien, and then come up with our own views and suggestions about its development," states Hwang, a member of the group.
As to the ideal of establishing Taiwan's third science park in Hualien (Hsinchu and Tainan are homes to the other two), Hwang observes that "at present, many cities and counties around the island are competing for the chance, but nobody is sure about where it will be located. It depends on whether the central government has the foresight to shift its attention to the east. But at least it's already pushed for the founding of Dong Hwa University."
Dong Hwa would surely play a major role in relation to the proposed science park. Authorities concerned, like the CEPD and the National Science Council, have reached a consensus that a research park in Dong Hwa should be established first in order to foster the formation of a science park. In fact, to attract private high-tech businesses to come to Hualien, a seventy -four-acre tract of land is to be marked out in the 620-acre Dong Hwa campus in preparation for the establishment of this research park, where they are expected to cooperate in research work with the university. As to the content of research, "Biotechnology as well as the software and multimedia industry will be two major fields in the park. Both of them are supposed to bring no pollution," says Hwang.
Meanwhile, Hualien's traditional marble industry ranks number two in the world, according to the magistrate. And the county government has set up an area for cement factories north of Hualien City, motivated by the county's concern to supervise this high-profile, pollution-creating industry.
Also, this past March the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) put Hualien on a list of eight counties in Taiwan whose rural townships are evaluated as either lacking in resources or developing slowly. The magistrate thinks this is good news in terms of the ability of Hualien's rural townships to attract investment, because its presence on the list means that the central government will encourage corporations to invest in rural townships by giving them a business income tax cut. Hualien County currently has one city, two urban townships, and ten rural townships.
It seems that things are looking up in Hualien. However, the March MOEA announcement also indicated that it is still far from advanced in terms of development. After all, most projects there are only in their early stages of realization, and some exist only on paper.
Shen of Open University thinks it is time for Hualien's people to stand up for the future of their land and to urge both the local and central governments to speed up local development. "Hualien's people used to get contented real fast. But they're better informed now. Now, they're dissatisfied with the present conditions, although in the last ten years Hualien did see signs of progress. They have higher expectations for Hualien," observes Shen, himself a Hualien native. "You know, people here are the creditors. They should get compensated for long-time unfair treatment from the central government, which is the debtor."
On the other hand, according to Shen, "new Hualien people" moving from other parts of Taiwan are beginning to appear. Lee of Chinatrust Hotel, who used to be a resident of Kaohsiung City, is one example. "When I started working in Hualien, I fell in love with the place. I've bought a housing unit in Hualien City and I have no intention of leaving." A Taipei native, Juhwen Hwang, who has lived at Dong Hwa University since it was established, says that he will stay in Hualien, largely because of its natural beauty. "More than a few teachers in our school just don't want to leave after they come here. And I think Hualien's scenery can also be a major incentive for private businesses to invest in the planned science park," notes Hwang.
Hualien's claim to fame will always be the wonder of its natural beauty. With that, this territory of waters and mountains will always have potential for growth. But, as projects are being begun and fulfilled, how fast will it develop? And how can people preserve Hualien's natural beauty at the same time they are taking advantage of it? These are certainly two of the major questions that lie ahead as Hualien moves into the next century.