The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday promoted a series of new tours to Yilan and Hualien that combine rail travel, cycling and the region’s natural beauty.
“In keeping with the government’s policy to promote green transportation, the packages are aimed at marketing new railway services and cycling paths in the east,” the ministry said in a statement.
In collaboration with the East Rift Valley National Scenic Area Administration in Hualien and the Yilan County Government, the packages encourage cyclists to take their bicycles on trains and take advantage of newly constructed bicycle ramps at railway stations before giving them access to scenic cycling paths.
The ministry has also launched buses with bicycle racks in Hualien County to improve transit services for cyclists.
The ministry said it has designed or improved five cycling paths in northern and northeastern Taiwan to provide a better environment for cyclists.
They are the Old Caoling Railway Tunnel (舊草嶺隧道) in Taipei County, the Dongshan River (東山河) path in Yilan County, the Liyutan (鯉魚潭) path in Hualien County and the Guanshan (關山) and Shihmen-Changbin (石門洞 — 長濱) path in Taitung County.
The ministry specifically proposed two routes for bikers, with one going from Yilan County’s Dongshan Railway Station to Pearl Community, Dongshan River Water Park, the National Center for Traditional Arts, Luodong Sports Park, Plum Blossom Lake and back to the train station.
The other route is from the Hualien railway station to Lotus Garden, Mukumugi eco path, Liyutan, Chisingtan (七星潭), Nanbin Park and back to the start.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Bureau, in collaboration with cable TV station LA 18 — the largest Asian-language TV station in the US — will produce shows on travel in Taiwan to help promote tourism in Taiwan to US audiences.
The bureau has invited Chinese, South Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino-speaking anchors from the channel to lead the groups to interesting spots around Taiwan early next year, and the tours will be filmed and aired on the station.
A tourism section staffer at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles said the campaign hopes to capitalize on the participation of the cable station’s celebrities to create a buzz and expose more Asian Americans to Taiwan’s natural beauty and its potential as a tourism destination.
LA 18 offers news and other programming in 13 different Asian languages.
The station reaches 6.2 million TV equipped households and 2.9 million cable subscribing households in Southern California, including in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and San Diego counties.
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