Despite its Beauty, Taitung Suffers from Poor Connectivity
台東風景好 交通致命傷
22
Ijust came back from a trip to Taitung City in Taiwan last month. Starting from Hualien, we embarked on a three-day journey, cycling 200km to reach Taitung. As we went in the middle of the rice harvest season, we saw breathtaking sceneries of golden paddy fields glistening in the sun along the way. Most parts of our journey were covered by cycling trails built along Taiwan’s east coast, where we also enjoyed stunning sea views and the soothing sound of ocean waves crashing onto the shore. Needless to say, we had a wonderfully pleasant time there.
Apart from its enchanting landscape, Taitung is also known for its friendly people. Locals were incredibly helpful and cheered us on, while hotels and restaurants, though often plain and even bare-bones, had extremely thoughtful staff that took great care of their guests. We had 15 cyclists in our group, and the local team that supported us along the way included four staffers and two support vehicles providing everything we needed, from fruits, cookies and sweets, to sports drinks and sunscreen. And you would be shocked to know how affordable it was—three days of cycling, plus food and accommodation, only cost around HK$3,000 per person. Even more amazingly, we got to ride professional-grade, top-quality bicycles that would have cost over HK$8,000 each in Hong Kong retail stores. Being wellequipped definitely made the journey a lot more enjoyable!
You are probably wondering by now: with all it has to offer and the great affordability, why are people not more familiar with Taitung? In fact, we didn’t come across many tourists or travellers on our way either. I know that the Taitung Tourism Board isn’t to blame for this. I’ve personally seen quite a few organisations from Taitung promoting its tourism, but unfortunately their active efforts seem to have yielded limited results. My theory is that Taitung is suffering from poor connectivity. Hongkongers only started to show interest in the coastal areas of Taitung since the start of direct flights from Hong Kong to Hualien. But Taitung itself doesn’t have an international airport, and it takes a four-hour train ride to get to Kaohsiung for Hong Kong visitors to catch the flight home; an underdeveloped transport system can be a huge deterrent.
This makes me think about the significance of transport to a region’s economic development, and just how lucky Hong Kong is in this regard. With the opening of the Hong Kong-zhuhaimacao Bridge and the Guangzhou-shenzhen-hong Kong Express Rail Link this year, Hong Kong will be more closely connected to the Greater Bay Area than ever and enjoy continued economic growth for decades to come thanks to the region’s highly integrated and connected transport network.