Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen unveiled a culture-trail and mountain-trail policy on September 8, pledging three hiking tourism centres at the Xiangshan, Jiantan and Maokong trailheads. Mayor Chiang Wan-an, in a response carried by PTS, said city departments had been steadily improving the trails.
What does the plan include? Shen said the plan aims to make Taipei Asia's top hiking tourism city, CNA reported. Speaking at DPP headquarters, Shen said he had drawn on culture routes in Taiwan and abroad and on Seoul's hiking tourism model to fix what he called a governance blind spot that leaves Taipei's historic sites and mountains cut off from one another. Four themed culture trails would trace the tea, coal and sugar industries; preserve urban history in areas including Monga, Dadaocheng and Beitou; follow Hakka settlement, Indigenous migration and military dependents' villages; and link sites commemorating the 228 Incident and the White Terror. On the mountains, he pledged to repair rather than build new, review trail grading standards, add toilets, drinking water, lighting and signage, and plan transport links between trailheads.
What would the hiking centres offer? Each would rent out hiking poles and other gear and provide lockers, changing rooms, shoe-washing troughs, guidance in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean, and real-time trail conditions, CNA reported. Asked about cost, Shen said each of Seoul's three centres cost roughly NT$12 million to NT$15 million, so even at the top of that range Taipei's three would probably come in under NT$50 million, calling them "the most basic of the basics." He set a goal, in remarks carried by PTS, of 100,000 visits a month. Mountain writer Tung Wei-yen said hikers arriving by public transport often need guidance to find the trailhead, and Shen said augmented-reality tools offered through the centres could help.
Will the candidates debate? Shen renewed his call for a debate with cross-examination, saying the choices at stake would shape Taipei for the next 10 to 20 years. He wanted to hear Chiang's views in a format allowing follow-up questions and free questions from residents, CNA reported.
How did Chiang respond? Chiang, in remarks carried by PTS, said the city's geotechnical engineering office had spent more than three years building friendly trails and suspension bridges, including lighting along the approach path at Zhinan Temple, and was continuing work at Xiangshan "so that more hikers can enjoy a better trail environment." Beyond the official debate he signed up for when registering, he offered no new response to Shen's challenge.
