I thought i would drop a line here to let everyone who doesn’t already know that the East Coast now has it’s own bilingual monthly (actually, it has been in existence since August 2005 but it is only now finding it’s footing).
Highway 11 is a tourist/city guide magazine that focuses on food, entertainment, travel and soft issues pertaining to the East Coast (and to a certain degree, beyond). We provide information on restaurants, hotels and attractions throughout Yilan, Hualien and Taitung.
While we are still very much in our growth stage (meaning that there is never enough actual copies of the magazine on the streets by the middle of the month) our reception on the coast has been positive. Currently we are printing 2000 copies of a 24 page publication but that seems to expand month by month.
The magazine is entirely independent and has been generously supported by community businesses in the form of advertising.
If anyone is interested in writing, translating, photographing or, bless your soul, advertising (or if you simply want to know more about the magazine) please feel free to drop me a line as stongerp@yahoo.ca. We are always on the lookout for stories and pictures (especially from Yilan and Taitung as we are located in hualien and, therefore have better access to information here.
No web site as of yet, but we should have something up within the next month or so. Fingers crossed.
Are you distributing them on the north and west coasts? I haven’t yet seen any but it sounds like a fine idea. For example, I’ve recently heard that one of my favourite beach campsites (Shuishan, just north of Taidong) has been closed and totally fucked by hotel construction.
Never found out until my friend drove down to camp at CNY and made the sad discovery. News like that would be useful to us city types!
Best of luck.
The magazine is not currently available in the north or west (we can barely fill the demand in the East) but there are designed to do so once things really get rolling. We will be offering subscriptions in the not too distant future. i will be sure to keep this post updated on developments in the magazine.
I have heard all about the hotle development in taitung. It was indeed a wonderful stretch of beach, now forever ruined. These are indeed the sorts of stories we are looking for.
Yes, I’ve seen it around Hualien. It’s not a bad start, although I probably wouldn’t pay for it just yet. One thing that really bothers me, and it’s not just a problem with Highway 11 but with a lot of these other little English or bilingual magazines floating around Taiwan, are the so called “reviews.” I’m sorry, but I find that they are utterly worthless, because every time they say it’s wonderful/beautiful, the food is great etc. and never give a real, objective review. They’re mostly just advertising. Why is that? No ideas for content? Fears of really saying the truth? Personally, I’d like to see more coverage of things to do for fun, other than go to Enigma/All Star, etc. How about some coverage of hiking trails that are not on the Taroko Gorge tourist map? Or good camping spots? What about any local events of interest, such as at the Hualien cultural center? How about a community message page? How about an objective review of opinions on the CLC (Chinese Learning Center) at Tzu Chi U. and other Chinese teachers or schools to help foreigners who want to learn? Or, a list of the schools and bushibans who teach English, to help all of these foreigners I see going around scrambling for jobs in Hualien? So far, I’ve only seen one good piece of content, and that is the map of Hualien. The rest is just advertisements. I tried a few of the restaurants that were “reviewed” Dolphin, etc. They were crap! Come on, be brave, tell the truth! I’d pay for it if it had real content.
Two stories you could do.
One is on that goddam jetty they built at
Wu Shr Gan which cut the excellent wave in half–when are the Taiwanese going to learn surfing=$$$$$???
[quote=“Bubba 2 Guns”]Two stories you could do.
One is on that goddam jetty they built at
Wu Shr Gan which cut the excellent wave in half–when are the Taiwanese going to learn surfing=$$$$$???
The other is the fishing of whalesharks.[/quote]
Are you talking about a bunch of whalesharks going out in a boat with sunscreen and a cooler full of Pabst??
You can hunt sharks or fish for them. It’s irrelevant anyway. You can also fish or hunt for ceteceans, viz:
[quote=“The Pogues in the Greenland Whalefisheries”]In eighteen hundred and forty-six
And of march the eighteenth day,
We hoisted our colors to the top of the mast
And for greenland sailed away, brave boys,
And for greenland sailed away.
The lookout in the crosstrees stood
With spyglass in his hand;
There
You can hunt sharks or fish for them. It’s irrelevant anyway. You can also fish or hunt for ceteceans, viz:
[quote=“The Pogues”]In eighteen hundred and forty-six
And of march the eighteenth day,
We hoisted our colors to the top of the mast
And for greenland sailed away, brave boys,
And for greenland sailed away.
The lookout in the crosstrees stood
With spyglass in his hand;
There
I appreciate the criticism and I can offer a few explanations:
First, the magazine is and will always remain free. It is my belief that this information should be available for everyone. We have debated the pros and cons of selling the mag, but it is simply not anything we are ready to do. This why there is so much advertising. It is those dollars that are paying for the printing, distribution etc…
Many of the story ideas you have mentioned are excellent, but there is a lack of qualified (and/or willing) writers to do the research and reporting for such projects. I encourage more people to write and publish stuff like this but it is often up to the pool of resources we have. We have strayed away from buxibans and language learning mainly because we do not want to be identified as a foreigner magazine, exclusively. Turning it into a resource for English teachers to find work would tip it far too heavily in one direction.
As for the rest, i encourage you to keep your eye on the magazine over the next few months. Hopefully we are able to grow some teeth and report on some more out of the way locations.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback.
Ryan
P.S. Would you like to write on any of the topics you mentioned?
In Taitung it is currently available at Pasedena, Young’s, Who’s, the Dulan Sugar Factory and most of the hotels as well as the tourist bureau. Certainly not the coverage we would like, but it’s getting there. Any suggestions (with address) would be greatly appreciated.
I would like to make an appeal to those living in Yilan County. We are looking for people to write about issues pertaining to and places located in Yilan. Ideas for articles are welcome. Yilan is sorely under-represented in the magazine only due to the fact that it is based in Hualien.
If there is anyone interested in writing for a monthly magazine, please contact me at: stongerp@yahoo.ca.
