Residents of the Hamasen area (哈瑪星) in Kaohsiung yesterday protested at a public hearing with city officials over Chinese tourists to the Sizihwan Scenic Area (西子灣), saying the surge of visitors has disrupted traffic, while business at local stores continues to suffer.
Chinese tourists are like “locusts,” because they arrive in swarms, Hamasen resident Lin King-li (林金利) said, adding that many litter, urinate and defecate on the streets.
He criticized the city government’s tourism policy, which focuses on boosting the number of Chinese visitors, saying that local businesses are not making any more profit from the increased tourism.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
If the situation continues, Taiwan could become the next Hong Kong, he said.
Tourists do not necessarily bring revenue to a business, National Sun Yat-sen University educator Yu Chien-yuan (余建源) said.
He said the situation in Sizihwan is evidence that Chinese travel agencies that offer bargain packages do not boost tourism income, as the agencies take their clients dining and shopping only at stores they are affiliated with.
As a result, not only are people not receiving the revenues they were promised, the city has to use taxpayers’ money to clean up the mess caused by Chinese tourists, while Chinese businessesprofit.
Members from the Hamasen Vision Alliance and several other self-help groups said that Chinese visitors have degraded residents’ quality of life.
Meanwhile, the Kaohsiung City Government said that it would limit tour buses from 3pm to 7pm, starting on Sunday.
Bus access to the Sizihwan Scenic Area is to be capped at 15 vehicles every 20 minutes, it said.
Residents at the hearing called the move a “band-aid.”
Kaohsiung City Councilor Lee Chiao-ju (李喬如) said that Sizihwan is better without Chinese tourists if all they do is “pee and litter,” while Kaohsiung City Councilor Chien Huan-tsung (簡煥宗) called on the city’s Tourism Bureau to prepare a report on tourist-related problems.
He urged the city government to establish a committee of residents and academics to work out a long-term mitigation plan.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS