Apple Daily reports today that starting in January 2014, you gotta pay to park (national park, that is). It will be NT$100 for a one-entry ticket, NT$200 or NT$250 for a full pass (although I’m not sure what this means), or alternatively NT$300 per small car. It sounds to me like poor people get the really short end of the stick here, because a family of 4 would actually have to pay more if they took a bus than if they could afford to drive a car. It’s already hard to find open spaces in Taiwanese cities, and soon you’ll have to pay for it. Plus they’re encouraging people not to take public transportation.
I missed that, thanks. There’s still the problem of the ‘working poor’ who may not quite qualify as low-income but don’t really have a lot of money to throw around.
Plus everyone in Taiwan (definitely myself included) could use more exercise and is less likely to go hiking on Yangmingshan, for one, if it costs.
There are plenty of other places to go hiking than YMS. None of these cost money and are more likely to be closer to where the working poor actually live. Oh and reducing the number of people who go to the parks is actually a good thing. They are nature reserves.
I agree with Mucha Man that this is a mostly good thing. There are a lot of underused or even completely forgotten about areas with great hiking. Taiwan needs to start spreading the people out because it gets ridiculous on weekends at many of these spots.
It seems like there should be a yearly pass that people could purchase. It also wouldn’t be a bad thing if this reduced the number of cars going through YMS on a weekend.
I don’t have exact figures but I am making an educated guess that national park visits are at least 10 million per year. That means billions of dollars in new revenue starting next year. :bravo:
