The Yehliu Geo-park is mulling doubling the entrance fee for foreign and Chinese visitors to maintain the park’s ecology and ease its management burden in light of increasing numbers of Chinese tourists.
The park, located in Taipei County’s Wanli Township (萬里), was established as a state-owned, privately run facility to protect the ecology in the area. It is best known for its unusual rock formations.
The park’s management office said the number of visitors to the park this year hit 1 million earlier last month and reached more than 1.2 million this week. However, the increase in tourists, of which Chinese tourists made up 37 percent, has added a greater burden on the park’s management, it said.
General manager Yang Ching-chien (楊景謙) said yesterday that past records showed the park once attracted 11,000 visitors in one day. Despite this, all the visitors — Taiwanese, Japanese, Americans and Europeans — behaved in orderly fashion.
However, the situation started to change this year with the influx of Chinese tourists, he said.
“Looking at them from Taiwan’s perspective, some of their behavior needs improvement,” he said.
Yang said that ever since an incident in April in which a Chinese tourist named Chao Kengda (趙根大) carved his name on the “Queen’s Head,” the park has asked park rangers to guard it and bar visitors from approaching it. Surveillance cameras have also been installed, he said, adding that “foreign visitors may have a hard time telling Chinese tourists from Taiwanese because we have the same skin color and speak a similar language.”
Yang said the park management sought to strike a balance between protecting the park’s ecology and promoting ecological tourism. He said the additional money collected by doubling the fees would give management some “breathing room.”
At present, admission is NT$50 for adults, with discounts for students, senior citizens and groups.
Chu Chuan-wei (朱傳緯), director-general of the North Coast and Guanshan National Scenic Area Administration, said he was unaware of the plan, adding that the agency would hold a meeting to discuss the matter after it receives an application from the park’s management.
Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said she had yet to receive information about the planned increase, but added that the move could need further debate as it could make foreign and Chinese tourists feel they are unwelcome.
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