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Now you can fly from Hualian to HK , etc. This should be interesting ! If it becomes scheduled and the prices are reasonable, it will be a benefit to those living in Hualian and Taitung for sure.
Oh yes, wonderful. More tour buses in the east. I just killed a mosquito in celebration.
Ha I know. Sometimes I do miss the Taiwan of the 70s/80s. No chinese tour groups. NO tour groups really from anywhere.
Taiwan really has changed a lot from the days of my youth. I remember living in the TunHua S.Rd area when it was rather quiet. When if you wanted some excitement you went down to hsimenting. Otherwise taipei was like a large town. Our favorite thing was to visit every new cafe around that city that opened up. Now thats really an impossible task.
Course all in all its a lot more exciting now. Transports a lot better all over the city and islandwide. But oluanpi is not the far side of the moon it once was (remember the 2 lane down there before?). Buses are not so crowded now, no more being sandwhiched so tight in there. Course there were times when that was not all bad, depends on who you were sandwhiched with. I remember often practically slow dancing with the 20 something girls on those buses, it was that tight !!
Yes its a whole new place. All in all its good though. Travelling around the whole island is so convenient now. THe island itself is starting to feel a whole lot smaller though.
Chinese tour groups will go away soon enough though because the govt is going to open up to individual travel. You are soon not going to be able to identify them as you travel around until they speak. The young people from china dont look too different nowadays from TW young people, as they start to dress the same.
I ran into this young couple recently here in the bay area. The lady (WOW she was) was dressed in super short hot pants showing nothing but LEG and the guy was dressed like a Taiwanese person too, but they were from Shanghai. I couldve sworn they were taiwanese from their dress.
SO i guess in time you wont see mainland tour groups (even they dont like to be shuttled around in groups forever) just individuals.
Of course you’ll see groups. That’s how Taiwanese and Chinese travel. And those flights are designed to bring in tour groups or they aren’t profitable. The problem is all these government knows is how to bring in groups and develop infrastructure for those groups.
Or how exactly do you think Chinese tourists are going to be travelling around the east coast? Do you think they will rent cars or scooters or bike?
I object to this because there is no sense in developing areas properly for tourism, and no sense that there is a limit to what areas can endure.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]Of course you’ll see groups. That’s how Taiwanese and Chinese travel. And those flights are designed to bring in tour groups or they aren’t profitable. The problem is all these government knows is how to bring in groups and develop infrastructure for those groups.
Or how exactly do you think Chinese tourists are going to be travelling around the east coast? Do you think they will rent cars or scooters or bike?
I object to this because there is no sense in developing areas properly for tourism, and no sense that there is a limit to what areas can endure.[/quote]
Yes I agree. But long term the groups will die out in time. Ten years down the line.
Basically the well known tourist traps in Taiwan are going to be off limits for locals because they wont want to go because the places will be full of mainlander tour groups.
Well at least they can only fly in MD82 and 737 to those airports, no heavies.
Why do you think tour groups will die?
Because currently I think the TW govt requires mainlanders to come in groups of at least five persons (down from ten). And theres talk to release visa for individual travel. Given ten years down the line there will be fewer tour groups as people could simply come with one or two friends. It would be like visitors from Spore. They dont come in tour groups much do they?
I’m with Mucha Man here, except,I can’t even find the mosquito to kill in this case. Taroko is now a mad house loaded with inconsiderate tourists.Tour buses double parking along the narrow lanes making traffic impossible; litter etc etc.
And when the craze die down? They’ll cancel the flights for sure, just not enough profit to sustain the route.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]Of course you’ll see groups. That’s how Taiwanese and Chinese travel. And those flights are designed to bring in tour groups or they aren’t profitable. The problem is all these government knows is how to bring in groups and develop infrastructure for those groups.
Or how exactly do you think Chinese tourists are going to be travelling around the east coast? Do you think they will rent cars or scooters or bike?
I object to this because there is no sense in developing areas properly for tourism, and no sense that there is a limit to what areas can endure.[/quote]
Tour groups bring in the numbers and the money. They are an inevitable at the big-ticket tourist attractions like Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, and Tarako. That leaves the rest of Taiwan for us to enjoy.
The impact is more down to numbers rather than the fact they are in tour groups. Imagine the even greater chaos if they all decided to ditch the tour bus and drive themselves up to Tarako.
Chinese ditching tour groups would be a huge shift in culture… no matter how loose restrictions are they will always come in groups. That said, maybe once the novelty of visiting Taiwan has worn off their numbers will drop. My impression is many of them come here because it’s Taiwan, the forbidden “province”, less than any interest in the actual sights.