A Canadian newspaper praised Taiwan as a cyclist’s wonderland and recommended the country as a perfect model for Canadian officials attempting to encourage more city dwellers to get on their bikes.
“With a huge choice of bike paths, mountain trails, bike parks and other tourism sites along the routes,” Taiwan has been transformed into a “cyclist’s paradise,” the Ottawa Citizen daily said in an article on Saturday last week.
“The Taiwanese have suddenly taken to riding bicycles by the millions, and today the island is criss-crossed by hundreds of smooth paved bike paths,” the article written by Mike McCarthy said.
McCarthy wrote that twin setbacks — SARS a decade ago and the more recent global economic recession — caused a drop in international tourism and led many locals to switch to more affordable cycling vacations at home.
A Taiwanese film on cycling around the island — Island Etude (練習曲) — also helped fan the flames of this health revolution, the article said.
Keen to develop a new industry, the government began funding bike trails and bike parks. Bike hotels and bed and breakfasts have sprung up all over the country to lure city dwellers to the countryside for cycling adventures.
“Today, the majority of Taiwanese, young and old, are frequent or occasional cyclists, and the demand for more bike paths continues to grow,” McCarthy wrote, adding that “the bike trails and mountains have also attracted serious cyclists from Europe and North America.”
McCarthy referred to the Guanshan Bike Trail in Taitung County as the “perfect bike trail,” with its scenery of lush green rice paddies and rolling hills dotted with water buffalo and fragrant flowers, along a smooth paved path over tiny bridges and past shops selling tea, ice cream and lunchboxes.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said at the opening of the Taipei Cycle Show on Wednesday that the government would extend the nation’s bike path network to 2,000km, of which 900km would be mountain biking trails and 1,200km would span along coastlines.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS