A river cruise service from Banqiao (Huajiang) to Bali will open by the end of the year, according to the mayor of Xinbei.
Two wharfs are scheduled to be added next year: Liji in Xinzhuang and Chongyang in Sanchong.
New Taipei City: River cruise from Banqiao to Bali to be launched by year-end: mayor
wow must take forever to get to bali indonesia by river boat??
Nice idea but banqiao to guandu has to be about the ugliest stretch of water in the whole system. Guandu to Bali is lovely though, definitely.
I disagree bob. I ride the bike paths along banqiao and sanchong and it is very scenic in many areas as you look north to guanyinshan and yangminshan.
Anyway this is mostly for Chinese tourists who are used to tours through blight. I would really like to see better ferries to the outer islands and also one down the east coast. of course having mainlanders on any form of transport in this country just seems a recipe for disaster.
Eric Chu says in the article
Why is he courting Chinese tourists? This should be for local residents and cyclists. No Chinese phlegm on my bike tires please. :bluemad: Let’s keep this a peaceful and quiet boat ride.
[quote=“Incubus”]Eric Chu says in the article
Why is he courting Chinese tourists? This should be for local residents and cyclists. No Chinese phlegm on my bike tires please. :bluemad: Let’s keep this a peaceful and quiet boat ride.[/quote]
What do you mean keep? There is no current boat ride. If they are making this for tourists so be it. They wouldn’t have such a thing without tourists.
Yeah. I just checked it on the map and realized that Banqiao is a long ways up river from the Dadaocheng wharf where I got on the boat that now runs from there to Guandu. That bit looked awful from the boat though honestly (of course, in different light it might be OK - like at night in a rain storm;)
Where in Banqiao are they going to put the wharf I wonder?
The bit upstream from Dadaocheng definitely looks nice though, I’ve always wanted to get a little boat and putt around in there. Janet did a bit once and there were dozens of fish jumping alongside the speed boat, one even jumped IN the boat! With the constructed wetlands and the hills around banqiao that could be a really nice ride.
I hope the whole thing is a raging success. I hope people return to the river for entertainment and transportaion and that they finally realize what a wonder it is and finally decide to really clean it up.
This might be really nice. With any luck they’ll design the boats so you can wander around on the deck and really get the feeling you are outside in the wind and all that…
Could be really cool. This is good news.
Oh, on the Chinese thing…
Pretty sure we will have to start getting used to that. Taiwan has the lowest birth rate in the world and they are building new apartment complexes all over the place. Investors probably KNOW “somebody” will be moving in.
The article said “Huajiang Wharf” (or rather “Huajiang Hwarf” 
), so this is likely by Huajiang Bridge, the northernmost Banqiao bridge into Taipei (leading into Heping West Road). It’s been a few years since I’ve been next to the river there. But on Google Maps it looks like there’s a tiny dock just off a parking lot there.
With a [strike]competent[/strike] leader like Eric Chu anything is possible. Thanks to the oversight of the former head of Taoyuan, the Chingpu Stadium has some of the most original seating in all of sport. In fact, it was so successful he reused the design for the upper level of the Taoyuan Performing Arts Center.
The article said “Huajiang Wharf” (or rather “Huajiang Hwarf” ), so this is likely by Huajiang Bridge, the northernmost Banqiao bridge into Taipei (leading into Heping West Road). It’s been a few years since I’ve been next to the river there. But on Google Maps it looks like there’s a tiny dock just off a parking lot there.[/quote]
Oh I go past that wharf all the time. i wa wondering about it. Big new park in the area. The huge bridge just to the west has this very cool bike path that actually runs under the bridge.
[quote=“Mucha Man”][quote=“Incubus”]Eric Chu says in the article
Why is he courting Chinese tourists? This should be for local residents and cyclists. No Chinese phlegm on my bike tires please. :bluemad: Let’s keep this a peaceful and quiet boat ride.[/quote]
What do you mean keep? There is no current boat ride. If they are making this for tourists so be it. They wouldn’t have such a thing without tourists.[/quote]
I was thinking of the on-again off-again Dadaocheng-Guandu ferry, which accommodated bicycles and was very pleasant with just a handful (well-behaving, quiet, local) passengers every time I took it. Should Chinese tourists come, there would go the neighborhood.
That’s one of my favorite biking routes. I call it the lake ride. I go around the “lake” that is formed by the convergence of Xindian and Dahan rivers. It’s a four-bridge route that I can complete in 2 hours starting from my home in Taipei. The beauty of it is that all the bridges have rideable bike ramps, and the view from the lookout deck on Xinbei bridge is fabulous.
Yes, excellent ride. A couple times a week I go from Bitan up the convergence and then pop over to the north side of the Dahan to ride back. The south side is still my favorite especially as they finish off some parkland. Some beautiful sections of the river with lush wetlands on the opposite back loaded with birds.
Chinese tourists are all right when they aren’t eating or at the hotel.
