Briefing -
WEF <Travel
and tourism competitiveness report> of 2019 shows
Taiwan had the sub-region's
largest decline in
competitiveness, Taiwan ranks
No.10 among Asian countries,
Taiwan's
prioritization of travel ranks world No.75 (see below for
details);
New
York Times, 7-31-2019: China, an
Eye on Elections,
bans solo tourists from heading
to Taiwan.
L.A. Times, 8-1-2019: The
indefinite suspension is likely
to prove a major economic hit to
Taiwan, as well as a blow to
cultural interplay.
BBC, UK, 7-31-2019:
China remaining the top source of
tourists to Taiwan...
Why? L. A. Times
commented ...... ( pls. read
main text below )
This
websites-group was ranked No.1
by "comment Taiwan tour", "comment Taiwan travel",
"comment Taiwan tourism"
pic.: No.1
"comment Taiwan travel" on US
Google, 1-20-2020
pic.: No.1
"comment Taiwan travel" on US
Google, 12-23-2019
pic. left
: No.1 "comment Taiwan tourism"
on US Google, 12-23-2019;
pic. right : No.1 "comment
Taiwan tour" on US Google,
12-23-2019
pic. left: This
websites-group was ranked No.1
by
"comment Taiwan tourism"
on US Google, 11-29-2019, 11-11-2019, 8-27-2019, 7-15-2019;
pic. right: This
websites-group was ranked No.1
by
"comment Taiwan travel"
on US Google, 11-29-2019, 11-11-2019, 8-27-2019, 8-3-2019
pic.
right: This
websites-group was ranked No.1
on US Bing
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
11-29-2019, 7-11-2019,
3-7-2019,
9-4-2018,
6-22-2018
pic. left: This
websites-group was ranked No.1
by
"comment Taiwan tour"
on US Google, 12-3-2019, 11-11-2019
pic. left: This websites-group was ranked
No.1 on ASK
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
11-29-2019, 8-27-2019
pic. right: This websites-group was ranked
No.1 on Yandex of Russia
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
12-1-2019
pic. left: This
websites-group was ranked No.1
on Baidu of China
by "comment Taiwan tour",
11-29-2019, 8-3-2019
pic.
middle: This websites-group was
ranked No.1 on Baidu of China
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
11-29-2019, 8-3-2019
pic. left:
This websites-group was ranked
No.1 on Baidu of China
by "comment Taiwan travel",
8-3-2019
pic. left: This
websites-group was ranked No.1
on US Bing
by "comment Taiwan travel",
7-11-2019,
3-7-2019,
9-4-2018,
6-22-2018
pic. right: This
websites-group was ranked No.1
on US Bing
by "comment Taiwan tour",
7-11-2019
ps: items above are "AD",
advertisements
pic. right:
This websites-group was ranked
No.1 on Yahoo search engine
by "comment Taiwan tour",
7-11-2019
ps: items
above are "AD", advertisements
pic. :
This
websites-group was ranked No.1
on Yahoo search
by "comment Taiwan travel",
3-7-2019, 9-4-2018, 6-22-2018
pic. :
This websites-group was ranked
No.1 on Yahoo search
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
3-7-2019,
9-4-2018,
6-22-2018
pic. : This
websites-group was ranked No.1
on US Google
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
3-7-2019,
9-4-2018,
6-22-2018
pic. :
This websites-group was ranked
No.1 on US Google
by "comment Taiwan travel"
and "comment Taiwan tour",
3-7-2019, 6-22-2018
◎
WEF <Travel
and tourism competitiveness report> of 9-4-2019 shows
Taiwan had the sub-region's largest
decline in competitiveness
(30th to 37th), due to significantlytightened visa requirements (37th to 119th),
waning cultural resources and business
travel (26th to 36th) and recalibrated
figures showing a drastic reduction in
protected areas (20th to 118th),
etc;
New
York Times, 7-31-2019, CNN
8-1-2019: China, an Eye on Elections,
bans
solo tourists from heading to Taiwan.
Independent UK 8-1-2019: It is a
blow for Taiwan’s tourism industry.
L.A. Times, 8-1-2019: The
indefinite suspension is likely to prove
a major economic hit to Taiwan, as well
as a blow to cultural interplay.
Liberty Times 8-28-2019: Taiwan may loss
35,400 million dollars from the gross
annual value of tourism in the second
half of 2019. United Daily
(8-17-2019, editorial) : Very most part
of Taiwan's current tourism difficult
situation is caused by
cross-Taiwan-Strait policy.
United Daily (8-22-2019, editorial) :
Pension reform might be among key issues
in Taiwan's tourism, because public
servants, military and education field
no longer
support domestic
travel as much as before.
United Daily (8-28-2019, Focus) :
Visa-free and allowance can save
tourism? Lots of allowances were
given to domestic tourists, but the
number of Taiwanese traveling overseas
hit new high again and again.
United Daily (8-23-2019) : Taiwan
president Tsai: tourism won't go old
route, current policy is to balance
tourists flow, stimulate domestic
demand, increase consumption-amount,
satisfy tourist's appetite by bubble tea
and local cuisine.
The
United Daily, editorial opinion,
7-15-2019 : An American economist Tyler
Cowen was surprised at that Taipei was
spinning its wheels, remains 85%
unchanged (making smallest differences
among Asian cities), motorcycles, small
lanes ... everywhere, in contrast,
GuangZhou city (廣州) has changed 90%, HK,
Seoul, Singapore made huge differences
only within 10 years ...; Apple
Daily, opinion, 12-25-2019: Give up "almozo"
promote-tourism policy, select "quality oriented" route ! Nikkei Asia Review
4-30-2019:
Since 2016, China has attempted to
punish Tsai (DPP) by reducing tour
groups to Taiwan, but inbound tourists
have steadily set records surpassing 11
millions for the first time last year... The
United Daily 3-7-2019: Taiwan's tourism
output value is suffering wallet
homicide ! the deficit of foreign
exchange is NT1728 billions, the deficit
of the number of tourists is 5570
thousands. The
United Daily 10-6-2018 editorial
opinion: Taiwan's 'heresy' policy of
tourism (subsidies, visa-free) led to
800+ billion dollars decrease of
earnings, because of lower consuming
ability of South Eastern Asian tourists and
smaller number of Chinese tourists.
Apple Daily, head-page,
12-31-2018: The amount of tourists
spending per day and the number of days tourists staying decreased.
The
Washington Post at 1-5-2018: (The
Chinese government...) "encouraging
Chinese tourism to this island" (ps:
during KMT in power ~ 2016 ).
New York Times at 2-22-2018: "The
Chinese government has discouraged
tourism to Taiwan...".
Apple
Daily, opinion, 2-12-2018: lacking of
monument elements, mature cultural
creativity, and inexpensive tour-site
hotels ... shallow, careless,
low-end quality led to an extremely low return
visitor rate to Taiwan.
Apple Daily,
Headline news 1-15-2018: Taiwan
tourism collapsed like a snow-slide,
the number of tourists to Kenting National Park(墾丁貓鼻頭)
dropped 59%, to Taroko National Gorge
(太魯閣) dropped 43%, etc, because of the
number of Chinese tourists declined a
lot and local people don't like those
sites - Apple Daily opinion
1-17-2018: expensive hotels, crowded
traffic, getting ripped-off by greedy
shops' ...
CTV news 3-9-2018 : beautiful island
turns into killing island (traffic
accidents), Taiwan's tourism might be a
long dark night.
UDN opinion 4-11-2018: tourism-related
business everywhere are complaining of
great hardship (齊喊苦); food
safety issues never end /
The China Times, editorial
10-20-2018, UDN editorial 12-4-2018.
The United Daily 12-10-2018: tourism
deficit expansion! The number of
Taiwanese traveling abroad is more than
that of tourists to Taiwan.
This unbiased websites group give you no
fake information, "make-up" pictures,
unlike many
others !
One of the most underrated tourist
destinations in Asia
World Economic Forum (WEF) <Travel
and tourism competitiveness report>released at 9-4-2019 shows
Taiwan had the sub-region's largest
decline in competitiveness from 30th
down to 37th. In the overall
ranking list, Asian country
Japan got No.4, China
No.13, Hong Kong No.14, Korea No.16,
Singapore No.17, Malaysia No.29,
Thailand No.31, UAE No.33,
India No. 34,...
category
Taiwan's rankings and/or score
comparison
prioritization of travel and
tourism
No75
Singapore No.6 , Hong Kong
No. 11
Natural & cultural resources
No.58 score 2.6
China No.1, score 6.0 ,
France No.2, 5.0,
Spain No.3, 5.7, Japan
No.7, 5.3, Indonesia No.18,
Thailand No.21, Korea No.24,
Vietnam No.26, Malaysia No.31,
HK No.40, Philippines No.46,
Sri Lanka No.52, Nepal No.56
Natural resources
No. 87
Hong Kong No. 42, Singapore
No.120
cultural resources & business
travel
No. 36 score 2.6
China No1, score 7.0
price competitiveness
No. 78
China 5.7
Health & Hygiene
No.43, score 6
score worse than Korea, Japan,
Mongolia
international openness
No. 60
only better than China, Mongolia
Safety & security
No. 26
human resource & labor market:
Taiwan No.18
ps: Compared to the report of 2017, Taiwan significantly tightened
visa requirements (37th down
to 119th), waning cultural
resources and business
travel (26th to 36th) and
recalibrated figures showing
a drastic reduction in
protected areas (20th to
118th).
According to
World Economic Forum (WEF) <Travel
and tourism competitiveness report>(released at 4-6-2017),
Taiwan's
most important indexes for
promoting tourism, like "Attractiveness
of Natural Assets" (parks, beaches,
mountains, wildlife, etc) ranks
world
No.87, "Natural Resources" ranks
No.55, "Environmental Sustainability" ranks No.75 (No.69
in 2015), "Price Competitiveness"
ranks
No. 46, "Hotel Price Index" ranks No.
89 (82 in 2015), Taiwan got "n/a" on China's strong indexes such as
"World
heritage natural sites" as well as "World heritage cultural sites"
(world top 5).
Taipei mayor Ko just mocked tourism of Hong Kong and Singapore,
however, they are very ahead in "Business Environment"
and "Ground & Port infrastructure"
(world top 2),
"Airport infrastructure" (world No.5 & 6 vs Taiwan no. 42 ), "Safety & security"
( No.5 and No.6 ) 。
Taiwan has excellent scores on "Mobile Network coverage", "ATM",
etc,
but those least likely are main attractiveness
to international sightseers that Taiwan
needs most. According to
government statistics "visitor arrivals
by purpose in 2016", only 7.61%
foreigners came for business,
conference, exhibition, most visitors
are for pleasure, so we should not focus
on WEF's overall score and ranking for
Taiwan.
Apple Daily, opinion, 2-12-2018: lacking
of monument elements, mature cultural
creativity, and inexpensive tour-site
hotels ... shallow, careless,
low-end quality led to an extremely low
return visitor rate to Taiwan.
●
China remaining the top source of
tourists to Taiwan is because,
LA Times
at 8-1-2019 said that (1)
satisfying a curiosity, an important
channel for knowing Taiwan (2) flights
of no more than 2~3 hours (3) strong
cultural and deep historic connection
(4) religious, architectural and
cultural similarities, the result of
migration from China to Taiwan that
began hundreds of years ago (5) take
home new information from Taiwan’s
newspapers, news websites and television
channels, all free of censorship unlike
on the mainland (6)
stoking business. How
about the current status of Taiwan's
tourism industries?
Liberty Times (10-31-2019): It's no fun
traveling domestically, more Taiwanese
would rather spend lots of money on
traveling overseas. Apple Daily (8-3-2019
論壇) commented that in
these years Taiwan's travel and tourism
still rely on old low strategies like
price-cutting competition, cut-throat
competition, or even
ripping-tourists-off
frauds...; Apple Daily (8-10-2019
論壇)
wrote the city view of Shi-Mun-Din(西門町,
a major tourism site)
of Taipei is messy, even worse than some
cities of South-East Asia. United Daily (8-2-2019)
said
Taiwanese government's allowances given to
citizens only cure the symptom not the
disease, the budget should be used to
improve tourism environment and to build
up tourism body, e.g.,
facilities & infrastructure - we only
have very little South-East Asian tourists
friendly stuffs for them...
UDN (8-23-2019), scholar criticized
Taiwan tourism counts on slogans and
small-eats of night markets, without a
long-term plan.
BBC UK, The SUN
(2-13-2017):
"Bus Crash Horror !"
-
Taiwan's "safety
standards need to be improved". A
few days later another fatal tour-bus
accident occurred. The
major official newspaper of the ruling
Chinese Communist Party, People's
Daily (8-4-2016 editorial ):
<Chinese tourists not dare to visit
Taiwan in the future without
safety assurance> / Taiwan tour
disasters are sort of
man-made disasters ,
Taiwan tourism's major problems
include
loopholes in
law and regulation
、careless
mistakes in
administration or
not-good-enough system of organization,
other
malpractices are traveling load-bearing
capacity (旅遊承載能力)、road-traffic
safety
、aviation safety 、road
maintenance
、safety standard for tour
bus 、Modified
Automobiles/Fix-up tour bus、Low-end
tour groups
…
tragic accidents happening again and
again open
Pandora's
box, too many tourist victims reveal
Taiwan tourism's problems, Taiwan
authority tried to do something (亡羊補牢)
each time a tragic accident occurred,
but it seemed late and same kind of
tragedies
never cease.
A big
gas-cylinder
LPG-explosion
in Fengjia (逢甲)
night market (known as largest
night-market business district in
Taiwan) proved this again, the China
Times (7-19-2017) lashed out all this
sort of night-market districts across
Taiwan have similar safety problem,
enforcement officials even don't know
which is more important - grass-roots or
common-people' making money or public
security.
Food
safety is another major issue,
good-taste is not equal to safety,
Taiwan's
most famous Toxicology expert &
professor Yin M.D. (殷宗海,
U. London ) advised that "Minimize the times of dining
out to protect your health !
●
Taiwan has never reached top 30 in <Travel and
tourism competitiveness report>
in past years. Taiwanese
media always reported one overall
rankingbased on all indexes,
but, only about 7% of international visitors came
Taiwan for business
purpose (Liberty
Times, official statistics, 9-5-2015),
about 85% Chinese visited Taiwan for
tourism (recreation, pleasure) purpose,
so Taiwan needs to focus those
tourism-related indexes in world
reports.
According to
<Travel and
tourism competitiveness report>
of 2015,
Taiwan's
index "Prioritization of
Travel & Tourism" was ranked world No.82, "Country Brand Strategy"
was ranked world No.
125, the ranking of "Tourist service
infrastructure" is No. 77,
"Quality of Natural Environment"
is No.75,
"Environmental Sustainability" No.69,
"Natural Resource" No.62, "Hotel Price Index"
is world No. 82, "Travel and
tourism industry development" is No. 53, "Airport Density" No.113, besides, "World heritage natural sites"
and
"World
heritage cultural sites" both n/a are
put in the last position.
Will world tourists come for some
Taiwan's high-score items, e.g.,
"quality of railroad" (world No.7),
" internet users"
(world No.24) ?
Taiwan likely lack confidence in its
travel sights and historic spots,
a latest tourism advertisement
(by John Wu &
Kimura
Takuya,
costs USD 1.7 million,
Sept.-Dec. 2015)
being broadcasted in Japan targets
small-eaters, instead of sightseers.
Besides, World Economic Forum gave a high score to
Taiwan's "HIV
prevalence" (Taiwan
dropped to No.59 in 2017's report),
but
WEF forgot
Taiwan is notorious for HIV and AIDS Social Stigma
issue,
USA
Country Reports on Human Rights practices
(released
at 6.26.2015)
stated 60 percent of HIV carriers in
Taiwan left their jobs due to coercion
and bullying (
● Taiwanese
personality
). The United Nations (UNAIDS)
concerns about AIDS patients' education
human rights in Taiwan (July 2016). Years ago Taiwan banned, but
communist China welcomed
Basketball Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic"
Johnson.
●
Referring to
another global famous report, 2014/2015
<Country Brands Index>, Taiwan's
score is below average perceptions
in both the Status and Experience dimensions
(indexes including
"Value
for money", "Range of attractions", "Resort & lodging options", "Would like to visit
for a vacation", "Food"; "Historical points of interest", "Heritage", "art & culture",
"Natural beauty", etc).
Some other Asian countries without rich
heritages (similar to Taiwan) reached
excellent achievements on tourism &
travel. On 2015's <Travel and tourism
competitiveness report>,
Japan's ranking is world No.9
(Prime Minster Abe is building the
nation upon tourism strategy), Singapore No.11,
Hong Kong No.13, mainland China
No.17, on the list of 2011,
Singapore was ranked world No.10, Hong Kong
No.12, Australia No.
13, New Zealand No. 19, Japan No.22, Korea No. 32, Malaysia No.35.
◎
United Daily News TV (8-23-2015,
8:00 pm, Taiwan)
commented tourism is related to a
country's living conditions, and
analyzed many Taiwanese had trips to
Japan because they love to experience
high living environment
(comments by SHU professor Chen J. Y.). But, UK's Economist
Intelligence Unit ― "Liveability
Cities" report
(Aug. 2015)
ranks Taipei world No.60 (Taipei's
Tourism leader 簡余晏 8-20-2015 expressed
the ranking will go up in next year,
hopefully), Mercer's
"Quality of Living" ranks Taipei
world No. 83,
and gives another city Tai-Chung world No.99, Monocle's "Quality of
Life" top list includes no Taipei.
The China Times reported
(9-21-2015)
air pollution (PM10
: 41ug/m3
) and environmental quality in Taiwan
both were ranked almost the last
position in OECD countries. (by
Directorate General of Budget,
Accounting and Statistics, Executive
Yuan, R.O.C. TAIWAN)
Taiwan university
-
college of Public health's associate
dean: Taiwan's PM2.5
air-pollution-control standard is
15 years behind, and hence create a
legitimate
environment to kill people
(1-4-2016 L.T.
http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/paper/945998).
BBC UK, The SUN
(2-13-2017):
Taiwan's travel transportation "safety
standards need to be improved".
◎
data 2018
area
population
number of tourists
(person in time)
times
Hong Kong
7.3 million
65.1 million
1:9
Macau
0.65 million
35.9 million
1
: 55
Singapore
5.6 million
18.5 million
1
: 2.3
Taiwan
23
million
11.25 million
1
: 0.5
Chinese visitors and tourists to
Taiwan (in millions) ,
Direct flights between
China and Taiwan began at 2008,
DPP (Green) in power from 2016
source:
Nikkei
Asia Review 4-30-2019, Taiwanese government
Economist - E.I.U. 2018: Food
Security Index
★ overall rankings: No.1 Singapore,
18, Japan, 22. Qatar, 25. S Korea, 40. malaysia, 46.
Chn.
★ Quality & Safety rankings: 13. S
Korea, 20. Japan, 21. N. Z. , 24. Singapore, 31. Qatar, 37. Chn.
★ Natural Resources: No. 65 Chn.
★ Taiwan is not included in 2018's list
★
In EIU
Liveability Country Level Index (Jan. 2015),
Taipei's "Food Security Index" ("1" means "Most Secure") is "42", same score
as those of communist China's major cities
Average consumption (USD)
daily of foreign
tourists
(Japan, Korea, China, HK&Macau, USA, Singapore, Malaysia) from 2015
till 2017
pic.: source from TW gov.,
Apple Daily, Aug., 2019
unit : USD
yr
2015
2016
2017
overall avg.
207.87
192.77
179.45
Japan
227.59
241.42
214.05
S. Korea
207.08
188.06
194.58
China
227.58
198.43
184.38
HK & Macau
184.76
182.98
183.92
USA
163.63
149.03
155.67
Singapore
205.07
229.43
152.25
Malaysia
162.07
142.45
★
BBC, UK,
7-31-2019: the number of
Chinese tourists (in
time) in 2015 is about
4.18 million, dropped to
2.7 million on 2018
(https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-49178224
7-31-2019)
★
Telegraph, UK,
7-31-2019: China remains
the top source of
tourists, with close to
2.5 million visiting
last year
One of the
fastest-growing
tourist destinations in the
world
In spite of these bad scores, MasterCard study (6-2015),
in terms of the number of
international overnight visitor
arrivals last year, ranked Taipei 11th in the world and
sixth in the Asia-Pacific
region
(ps: see tbl below). Taipei is fast-growing
tourist destination over the past five
years. The annual growth rate 14.9％
is ranked world No.1, In
terms
of
international
tourist
spending
last
year,
Taipei
was ranked
11th
in
the
world
and
fifth
in
the
Asia-Pacific
region.
Last year, international tourists in
Taipei spent US$9.28 billion (Taipei
Times, 6-6-2015)
.
Euromonitor International
released at 1-28-2017 "Top 100
City Destinations" ranking
in terms of international
tourist arrivals
in 2015, Taipei ranks No. 14
(higher than Tokyo , Seoul),
Taichung No. 97. (No.1 Hong
Kong, No.2 Bangkok, No. 4
Singapore, No. 6 Macau)
Taiwan's tourism
has been evaluated as non
competitiveness, but surprisingly attracts huge number of
tourists and money, Why ?
The Washington Post at 1-5-2018: (The
Chinese government...) "encouraging
Chinese tourism to this island".
The
China Times (中國時報, 7-14-2015)
points out, increasing communist Chinese tourists
led to Taiwan's fast growth on tourism. (
這「反映出開放陸客的成果」。)
In accordance with the Liberty
Times(7-7-2015),
the number of Chinese tourists is 90,000
in 2008, 540,000 in 2009, 3,330,000 in
2014
(ps: correct number should be :
3,987,152),
besides,
tourists from China's Hong Kong &
Macau (1,375,770 persons) also help a
lot. Is
this part of communist China's
widely-known political policy "Allowance
of profits" to Taiwan("讓利"政策)?
pic.: No.1 "comment Taiwan
tourism" on Google Taiwan,
7-11-2019
pic. :
This
websites-group was ranked No.1
on Google
by Chinese keyword "comment
Taiwan travel", 3-7-2019,
9-4-2018, 6-22-2018
pic.: No.1 "comment Taiwan tour"
on Google Taiwan, 7-11-2019
The sites-group's No.1 rankings,
tests at 1-30-2019, 10-15-2018
★
"評論台灣夜市":
No.1 on US Google,
US Bing, Yahoo search,
Yahoo Taiwan.
★
"comment
Taiwan foods":
No.1 on
US Bing, Yahoo search,
Yahoo Taiwan.
★
"comment Taiwan restaurants":
No.1 on US Google, US Bing, Yahoo search, Yahoo Taiwan.
★
"評論台灣
餐廳" : No.1 on US Google, US Bing, Yahoo search, Yahoo Taiwan.
★
"評論台灣美食":
No.1 on
US Bing, Yahoo search,
Yahoo Taiwan.
pic. right: This
websites-group was ranked top 2
by
"comment Taiwan travel"
on US Google, 7-31-2019
◎
Alarm-bell sounds
?!
New York Times at 2-22-2018: "The
Chinese government has discouraged
tourism to Taiwan...". (since DPP in
office, around 2016 )
Before that, some Taiwanese
Legislators worried and criticized
(7-7-2015) that
Taiwan's tourism depending on red Chinese
tourists may causes serious national
security problems
――
They probably reminded of Japanese
"tours for advice &
information" ("參謀旅行")
before having invaded China in
WWII.
The China Times (5-15-2017):
Losing huge number of Chinese tourists
resulted in closing many local
businesses (hotels, travel agencies,
tour bus companies, shopping stores ). CTI
TV news(5-16-2017, 9:30am): Chinese
tourists' amount of daily consumption
is USD 120, other countries' average
amount USD 48; However, The
New York Times (5-18-2017):
a
declining number of Chinese tourists can
be offset, to some extent, with visitors
from other Asian markets.
The United Daily (8-27-2016)
editorial: The relationship between
Taiwan and China falling back leads to a
misery & cutting-throat situation of
tourism industry, and soon will affect
other related industries - hotel,
aviation, restaurants and retails.
The China Times(12-19-2016): Taiwan's
tourism industry looks like a great
boom, but tourism business refuted it "
all are fake !", The number of Chinese
tourists in time in 2016 decrease 700
thousands, and the number-range keeps
dropping big, in average, Chinese
tourists stay 7.5 days (around Taiwan),
others 3.5 days (mostly in Taipei),
Chinese spent USD227.58 per day (52% on
shopping, far more than other nation's),
only next to Japanese USD227.59. The United Daily (12-21-2015): Taiwan needs attractions - better cultural
creativity, value-added elements. According to Central Bank of ROC,
Taiwan's tourism balance fell from
USD 0.11 billion (favorable
balance in 2014/ Q2) down to USD
0.498
billion (unfavourable balance in 2015/
Q2) -ps4.
Next TV (1-22-2016) : Chinese tourists
with high
consuming ability
only go to China partnership businesses,
Taiwan failed to earn their money and
collect enough taxes, besides, China
travel agencies owe tour fee up to
several billions. Taiwan should worries and needs
diversification of risk :
attracting new tourists
― Korean,
South-East Asian, Middle-Easterners,
Westerners, instead of putting all eggs in
one basket
―
expecting more Chinese tourists.
It's a challenge !
official report found the number
of
American tourists is only 458,691, Euro.
tourists even fewer - only 264,880 (UDN TV (8-23-2015):
many westerners regard Taiwan as an
electronics factory ...
) .
The total number of Westerners is only 1/7
~1/8 the number of Chinese tourists.
Taiwan also failed to attract Asians/Easterners other than
Japan (1,634,790 persons),
even Taiwanese prefer traveling
overseas, in last year, the number of
tourists visiting Taiwan is 9.91
million, but Taiwanese went overseas is
up to 11.84 million, foreign countries
earned Taiwanese money 159.6 billion.
Why?? and what's the solution?
◎
TVBS (7-14-2015, 9-15-2015 8:59pm) : scholars
and officials advised cultural
creativity cooperating with tourism, and enhancing soft power to promote
Taiwan's tourism industry,
according to UK based Monocle's global
Soft Power
Survey (2010/2011~2014/2015),
Taiwan's soft power even lost mainland
China, and some other Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand,
India, UAE.
Taiwanese government focused on
political elections rather than cultural
issues for years, soft power won't grow
big overnight.
Unlike some tourism websites'
beautified, glamor photo & words
(ps
00), this
non-profit site gives only true info. and
unbiased critiques on Taiwan's
tourism & travel. Some small
countries' (Croatia, Hong Kong
(14.16%), Jordan,
Thailand(10.87%))
proportion of tourism income in GDP
reached more than 10%, Malaysia, Singapore reached 7%~8%
(ref. Liberty Times 10-22-2015, UDN TV
8-23-2015), certainly
Taiwan needs forward thinking instead of
focusing on "short-swing
trading"
& benefit, which may harm tourism
industry, Taiwan requires accelerating
the improvements of those weak elements
mentioned in this web-site, so as to
ignore the pressures (UDN, 2-25-2016:
the number of tour-groups Chinese
tourists may reduce 30%~60% daily) from China
for political reasons.
United Daily, opinion, 12-30-2017 :
Taiwan's
foreign exchange earnings from tourism decreased
300 billion dollars. To promote
tourism just in number of tourists,
Taiwan's new mission “New Southbound
Policy” gave up the national
principle of mutual benefit and equity,
led to illegal drug trafficking and
neighbor countries' anger, and illegal
collectivized-workings by foreign
"visitors".
Taiwan's
advertisements only focus on "cheat
eats" by using some widely-known stars.
All these remind us a Chinese tourists
slang "you will regret for your entire
life if coming to Taiwan".
◎
Woody
Allen described New York as "beautiful
women ...", in contrast, a
money-oriented Taiwan can not build the
country an elegant graceful "woman".
To promote tourism, Taiwan probably need
to use tourists' curiosity (works only
once or at most twice), or to attract
'lower class' people, or still need
China's "encouraging Chinese tourism"
―
communist's political policy "Allowance
of profits".
Taiwanese
health is much important than making
tourism money, Taiwan adm. should put
more efforts on
food safety
and
pollution
issues.
(1) "in depth" tour - just a
slogan, equals to give up the "patient" / UDN, opinion, 10-3-2017
(2)
“New Southbound Policy” - equals no borders, cheap prostitutes and
frauds from South-Eastern Asia countries invaded and occupied sex
market. / CTN, headline, 10-17-2017.
●
UDN 10-20-2017: scholars advised:
(1) new image and positioning, street food/night markets is no longer
good enough.
(2) demassification & niche marketing, specific strategy for
eco-tourism. cheap-price or duty-free probably can't save TW
tourism.
PIC:
Without Chinese
tourists, Taiwan's foreign exchange earnings
decreased 267 billions (NT
dollars) per yr.
/ The China Times, 10-4-2017
The number of tourists to
Taipei attractions dropped sharply 2.7 million in upper yr.
/ UDN 10-20-2017
◎
●
Taiwan's poor creativity and culture
can
help its tourism industry as scholars advised ??
●
Taiwan government logo
●
Western
(Canadian) logo
appeared earlier
● Taiwan state-owned
enterprise logo
● pic.
right: Western logo
●
logo designed by
Taiwan's national university
●
pic. right: Korea Seoul city
logo
Although Telegraph (Jan. 2017) mentioned
Taipei's
"pioneering creative
scene", however, in fact ......
●
Pic. above-left: Taiwan's college paper,
professor, and
tourism leader both advised : “culture
is absolute a value-added & critical element in Taiwan Tourism
industry” (United Daily, 12-11-2015). Scholar comments that
Taiwan needs attractions - better
cultural creativity
(The United Daily 12-21-2015). TVBS (7-14-2015, 9-15-2015) : scholars
and official advised
Taiwanese cultural creativity
cooperating with tourism, and enhancing
soft power to save Taiwan
tourism. The China Times (9-20-2015) editorial : "Culture (ps: cultural
creativity) is best element to establish a country brand".
However, Taiwan's cultural creativity is
poor. For instance, pic. left is the
logo of Taiwan government, since 11-9-1993,
next 3 are logo of Canadian Pacific Rail,
since 1968 till out-of-flavour, so it's a
cheap-copy suspect. Taiwan's official document states their logo "easy
to identify and associate with Taiwan's brand ... a simple shape and
modernized & internationalized, aesthetic design "
; but,
exactly on the contrary, it's neither modernized, nor as aesthetical simple as CPR's
logo...
●
Pic. above-right : Taiwan's another 2 official logos have similar problems
―
easy to be associated with world famous logos.
● Government took the lead to plagiarize, and
ignored copy-rights, Taiwan becomes "an island of Plagiarism" / Liberty
Times 4-6-2016.
◎
Taiwan locates in
"Countries"
category, a lowest
area
―
having
below average
perceptions in both the
Status and Experience
dimensions.
Critera :
◎tourism
/
Value for money, Range
of attractions, Resort &
lodging options, Would
like to visit for a
vacation, Food ;
◎HERITAGE
& CULTURE / Historical
points of interest,
Heritage, art & culture,
Natural beauty;
etc.
◎“Country
brands” –
Countries that have
above average
perceptions across both
the Status and
Experience dimensions
and have measurable
competitive advantages
over their peers as a
result.
◎
“Experience countries” –
Countries whose
perception strength is
biased towards
dimensions relating to
Heritage & Culture,
Tourism and Made In.
◎
“Status countries” –
Countries whose
perception strength is
biased towards
attributes relating to
Value System, Quality Of
Life and Business
Potential.
http://www.futurebrand.com/news/futurebrand-launches-the-country-brand-index-2014-15
◎
top 20 countries:
Japan, Switzerland,
Germany, Sweden, Canada,
Norway, United States,
Australia, Denmark,
Austria, New Zealand,
United Kingdom,
Finland,Singapore,
Iceland, Netherlands,
France, Italy, United
Arab Emirates, South
Korea.
◎
top 20 most influential
cities: NY,
London, Beijing,
Washington, Moscow,
Tokyo, Paris, Berlin,
Shanghai, Dubai,
HK, Singapore, New
Delhi, SaoPaulo, Rio De
Janeiro, LA, Rome,
Toronto, Seoul, Mumbai.
◆
Economist Intelligence Unit -
Global Most Livable Cities
, '15
Taipei's
livability score ranks No. 60 in
2015, No.61 in 2013 (Tokyo
No.15 in '15, Australia
Melbourne No.1)
5 elements to
decide the rankings -
Infrastructure (25%, Housing,
Roads, Basic Utilities ), Heath
Care (20%), Culture &
Environment(20%), stability (25%
- crimes & terrorism), Education
(10%).
◆
Mercer "Quality of
Living" , 2015
Taipei's score was ranked No. 83,
Tai-chung city No.99.
The factors to decide include Economic environment, Political and social environment, Socio-cultural environment, Medical/health considerations, School and education level, Public services and transport, Recreation, Consumer goods, Housing, Natural environment.
◆World's best places to retire
in 2015, see
http://internationalliving.com/2015/01/the-best-places-to-retire-2015/
, which includes Asian countries like Malaysia, New Zealand, Thai, Phil,
Vietnam, but Taiwan is not included in there.
◆
MasterCard Global Destination
Cities Index, '15
the MasterCard
Global Destination Cities Index
reports the following cities as
the top ten most popular
destinations of tourism
worldwide in 2015
1.London (18.82million tourists
arrivals),
2.Bankok(18.24), 3.Paris,
4.Dubai(14.26),
5.Istanbul(12.56), 6.New York
City, 7.Singapore(11.88),8.
Kuala Lumpur(11.12),
9.Seoul(10.35), 10. Hong Kong
(8.66 million). Taipei
Times, 6-6-2015: Taipei
(6.55 million), an
increase of 2.5 percent from
6.38 million last year (2014).
1 Japan, 2 Italy, 3 France, 4 US, 5
Israel, 6 UK, 8 Egypt, 9 Spain, 10 Swiss, 11 Aus,
12 Peru, 13 India, 14 Austria, 15 S Africa
Value for Money
1 Thai, 2 US, 3 Malaysia, 4 Argen, 5
India, 6
Laos, 7 Indonesia, 8 Cam, 9 Vietnam, 10
Turkey, 11 Aus, 12 NZ, 13 Spain
Night Life
1 US, 2 UK, 3 Brasil, 4 Spain, 5 France, 6 Italy, 7
Aus, 8
Thai, 9 Argentina, 10 Germany, 11, Japan, 12 Holland, 13 Singapore, 14 Greece, 15 China
Beaches
1 Aus, 2 Brasil, 3 US, 4 Maldives, 5 Bahamas, 6
Thailand, 7 Greece, 8 Spain
◆In 2008
Top
Country Brand Index Ranking ，Japan(日本) is the only
top 10 Asian country, China is the rising star in the next 5 years.
Index
2007-2008 rankings: ( underscore
for Eastern nations)
"Arts & Culture"
France, Egypt, India,
UK, Greece, Red China, Russia, Japan, Spain.
"Fine
dining"
Italia, Singapore, Japan,
US, UK, UAE, Malaysia, Spain, Argentina .
"Friendly
locals"
Canada, New Zealand,
Ireland, Thailand, Sweden, Fiji, Turkey, Arab, Austria
"Best
shopping"
UAE, Singapore, Italia, Japan, France, UK,
Canada, Thai, S Korea
"authenticity"
Red China, S Africa, Japan, Thai, Egypt,
India, Peru, Morocco
"Ideal for business"
Red China ranks No.1, Singapore and
Japan rank top 10.
◆ According to 2009 ECA int'l "the Best Place to Reside", Taipei
ranks No.57, Asia top 3 are Singapore,
HK, Tokyo( both world
No.15).
2010's rank : Taipei No.55,
Singapore is still global No. 1.
◎
This
websites-group was ranked No.1
by "comment Taiwan travel",
"comment Taiwan tourism"
pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on China's Baidu
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
9-5-2018, 6-22-2018
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on ASK
by "comment Taiwan travel",
9-5-2018
pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on Dogpile
by "comment Taiwan tour",
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pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on DuskduckGo
by "comment Taiwan tour",
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on AOL
by "comment Taiwan travel",
9-5-2018
pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on Euro. MetaGER
by "comment Taiwan travel",
6-22-2018
pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on DuckDuckGo
by "comment Taiwan travel",
9-5-2018
pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on Yippy
by "comment Taiwan travel",
9-5-2018
pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on Webcrawler
by "comment Taiwan tourism",
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pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on Dogpile
by "comment Taiwan travel",
9-5-2018
pic. :
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websites-group was ranked No.1
on Lycos
by "comment Taiwan travel",
9-5-2018
●
Michelin Guide was released at
4-10-2019,
Taiwanese cuisine was not valued very high,
only 4 restaurants won 1 star each, 3 starred chefs are from Hong Kong
(Canton)
and Macau.
The total number of stars and starred restaurants of Taiwan are much less than
those of Shanghai, HK, Macao, and Singapore, in both 2019 and 2018.
Furthermore, unlike
those in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok,
Taiwan's night-market,
street foodfailed to won any Michelin star.
Even
Taiwan's
Michelin
3 star
winner
Le
Palais
was
found
snacks containing
Hydrogen
peroxide
(過氧化氫)
and
Benzoic
acid
(苯甲酸),
besides,
many
tourism
hotels
/
5 star
hotels
were
found
food
hygiene
not up
to
standard,
e.g.,
5 star hotels used expired
no-good
ingredients,
such as
HsinChu and Taipei's Ambassador Hotel, The
Grand Hotel, Regent Formosa, and so on, reported by
CTV
evening
news,
BCC ,
LTN
(12-19-2019)
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/3014179
.
●
Michelin Guide
Taipei was released at
3-14-2018,
Taiwanese cuisine was not valued high,
only 2 restaurants won 1 star each,
European and Japanese dishes won most stars, 3 and 2 starred honors are belong
to Chinese dishes and Japanese cuisine, 3 starred chefs are from Hong Kong
(Canton)
and Macau. In contrast, Chinese cuisine earned most stars of Michelin
Shanghai China, only four European tastes entered 1 ~ 2 starred list.
In Michelin Hong Kong & Macao, most starred restaurants' signatures are Chinese cuisine
and local specialty.
The number of stars Taiwan obtained is much less than
those of Shanghai, HK, Macao, and Singapore. Furthermore, unlike
those in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taiwan's night-market,
street food failed to won any Michelin star. China Times
- Want Weekly, No.185 (2017): To emergently save dying tourism, Taiwan
government spent NT$90,000,000 (USD 3 millions) to invite <Michelin
Guide> to Taiwan in 2018.
● According to
"Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" (2018) ,
Thailand Bangkok's Gaggan
consecutively got in the first place, the number of Japanese restaurants
selected is 11,
Hong
Kong & Macao 10,
Thailand
9、Singapore
7,
Korea and Taiwan both are 3, but Korea
won the 11th grade, the best ever position
that Taiwan got in this year is the 15th (RAW, 18th MUME, 47th Shoun Ryugin),
China got the 8th position. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/asia-50-best-restaurants-2018/index.html●
According
to The World's Best Restaurants (2017)
, Taiwan is not included in the list, Thailand got No.7, Singapore
No.14, Japan 18th, HK 24th, Shanghai 41th. In total, 5
Japanese , 4 Chinese, 3 Singapore, 2 Thailand, 1 Korean, 1 India
restaurant(s) entered top 100.
http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners#t51-100.
● According
to CNN
(2-29-2016) "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants"
, only two Taiwanese restaurants are
selected (leMout
Taichung (No.30) and Raw Taipei (No.46)),
which was raked No. 9 in Asia,
next to Singapore (10 restaurants
selected )、Hong
Kong(9)、Japan(8)、Thailand(4,
but Gaggan got best award)、China(3)、Korea、India、Sri
Lanka；
China's 3 restaurants ranking No. 7,18, 28
respectively
,
higher than
Taiwan's 。
(http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/29/foodanddrink/asia-best-restaurant-2016/index.html) ● According
to The World's Best Restaurants (2016)
, Taiwan is not included in the list
(Italia Osteria Francescana got No.1,
Spain El
Celler de Can Roca
No.2 ), 8 Asian restaurants are
selected, including Japan Narisawa
(No.8), H.K. Amber (No.20), Thail Gaggan
(23), Singapore Andre (No. 32),
Japan 龍吟 (31), Thai Nahm (37), China
Shanghai's Ultraviolet by P.P.
(42). / UDN 6-16-2016
● In UK's
Economist Intelligence Unit
- Global Food Security Index ( Sept.,
2017), Taiwan is not included ,
China's score of 2017 is 63.7, ranks 45th among 113 nations ( Singapore 4, Japan 18, Korea 24,
Ireland 1, US 2, UK 3,);
In EIU
Liveability Country Level Index (Jan. 2015), Taipei's "Food Security Index"
("1" means "Most Secure") is "42", same score as all other communist China's major
cities, e.g., GuangZhou, TianJin, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai.
Most-secure-food cities include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago,
Washington D.C., all are Index "1", Paris Index is "3" , Zurich and
Amsterdam index "5", Brussels "7".
China's
"Food Security Index" of 2016 is No. 42, some other top 40 Asian countries
are Singapore No.3, Qatar No. 20, Japan No.22, Korea No. 28, UAE No. 30,
Saudi Arabia No. 32, Malaysia No. 35, Thailand No. 51, Vietnam No. 57,
world top 11 are USA, Ireland, Singapore, Australia, Nederland, France, Germany,
Canada, UK, Sweden, NZ.
● The
Economist
(11-29-2014) analyzed Taiwanese
black-heart foods caused ruling party "has
suffered one of its worst electoral
defeats" since
1949,
"The
failure of Mr Ma’s government to prevent a series of food scandals
has also upset many"。●
The
New York times
(9.8.2014):
The
authorities in Taiwan are scrambling to control a
tainted-cooking-oil scandal that has affected hundreds of
manufacturers and raised fears about health risks posed in many
commonly consumed food items... the new scandal shows that there is
still not enough being done to eliminate lawbreaking production
lines”.
●
BusinessWeek (9-8-2014): "The
new gutter-oil scandal has “shocked
local consumers”
in Taiwan".
●
BBC (11-19-2013):
Consumers in
Taiwan have been
shocked by a
series of food
safety scandals.
According to official statistics (2012, paper by PingTung Univ.
Science & Tech.), the major part of tourists consumption in 2011 is
foods & drink (catering), which accounts for the proportion
0.63% of nation's GDP, about 2 times
the consumption amount from tourists' shopping, recreation, tourism of
arts & culture per year.
●
Pic.left:
Most 5 star hotel restaurants in
Taiwan don't wash the
vegetables, they just soak in
water and
cut them for cooking or eating ...
, a 5 star
restaurant made Japanese
sashimi
by fresh-water fishes, this may
causes serious infection even
cancer, according to Japanese studies in 2013... 5 star "SOP" is
this lousy, not to mention
average restaurants... here advises people to minimize number of times
for dining out in Taiwan / Jiang
M.D. 江守山's book "食在安心", printed in
Oct, 2014.
●
Another book, "Fruits
, Vegetables" ("遠離毒蔬果", June 2015) by IMEI
(義美) group's
leader Luis Ko (高志明), page 162 quoted Dr. Gaston J.C. Wu (professor
& dean, Taiwan Normal University) saying that Taiwan's vegetables and
fruits should be flushed thoroughly with plenty of flowing water,
those tiny gaps and hollows need to be cleaned by 'brush'
before cooking or/and eating. No just soaking
vegetables and fruits in water in a
large basin ...
●The
Liberty Times
(9-16-2015)
scholar's comment-article "洗菜只沖不刷,
蟲卵農藥統統下肚"
also supported this suggestion for
avoid pesticide (a lot more than US
vegetables ) etc.
◎
Intro. to
Taiwanese restaurants:
◆ 1.
Din Tai Fung
is a popular point for tourists (including Tom Cruise), and the best-known
restaurant (
ranking No.1 Taiwanese restaurant by
<Miele
Guide> of 2012). ◎
However,
● (1)
Din Tai Fung admitted at 5-9-2012 having
used Monosodium Glutamate
/ sodium glutamate (M.S.G.) as
addictive in some foods there -
and they won't change this policy so as
to keep major cuisine (e.g., steamed
bun/bao (小籠包), chicken soup) delicious (according
to United Daily News 5.9.2013). They
don't want to enhance the flavor
by good materials, like red
jujube (red date "紅棗")
and Fructus Lycii (GouQuZi "枸杞"),
mushroom, etc.
According to
National
Health Research Institutes
and United Daily News
(8-15-2015) "Horrible foods for
dining out": Taiwan's food (in
restaurants, cafeteria, etc)
problems include using MSG. Taiwan's
5 star restaurants like Sherwood
Hotel announced any chefs using
MSG will be fired.
According to int'l medical
studies, using Monosodium
Glutamate (MSG) is
controversial. (ref to "The
Dangers of MSG"
:
http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/the-dangers-of-monosodium-glutamate.htm)
Some claimed it
may causes asthma, headache, even brain
damage. )
● (2)
Din Tai Fung was suspicious
of being involved in
Taiwanese food scandal, Apple Daily (蘋果日報)10-10-2014
reported that one Taiwanese Dept. of
Health found out Din Tai Fung imported some oil
products from King's Cook which bought lard oil (mixing animal
feed with cooking oil) from Ting Hsin Int'l. (
http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20141010/485241/
台中市衛生局調查發現，鼎泰豐曾向購買頂新正義油品的台中金品調理(KingsCook)
公司進貨，恐中鏢。)DinTaiFung denied it.
●
(3)
Din Tai Fung admitted having used G.M.(genetic
modified)
soy material(豆類)
for a long time (until July 2015).
The China Times,
(3.29.2013)
reported professor Kuo H. J.
(National Taiwan University, Department of Agronomy)
comments - Taiwan using G.M.(genetic
modified) is "national scandal" (「國家級醜聞」),
French scholar Seralini found G.M. foods
may cause cancer with higher
probability,
BBC
(6.6.2013)<Taiwan
diet danger everywhere>:
Taiwan is the only country
eating cured products made by
animal-feed,
G.M.(genetic
modified) soya beans. (主妇联盟说台湾是世界上唯一直接食用饲料级基改黄豆加工
的豆制品国家。)
But Din Tai Fung still used the
"scandalous" G.M. stuff for 2+ years after the
news being spread island-wide.
Recently,
CNN (7-24-2015) dropped Din Tai Fung
down to No.20 position in Taiwanese
foods list.
a
DinTaiFung in USANearly Shut Down
for
Unsatisfactory Health Inspection...The
Brand Personality ?
★
According to 2 US local news
(4-15-2016),
Din Tai Fung (
Bellevue,
WA, USA )
failed to pass
health inspections
(violating cooling procedures,
handwashing, and having valid
permits and operating
procedures, among other items)
and garnered 85 critical food
safety violations,
Din Tai Fung (
Seattle
) also
received unsatisfactory
health inspections
3 times ... (China Times,
5-22-2016)
★
Din Tai
Fung's Hong Kong branches were
just eliminated their Michelin
one star title at Oct. 31, 2014,
Taiwan's Din Tai Fung never won
any Michelin star title, but it
is advertising itself a Michelin
star restaurant by posters
at front of largest
Japanese mall, Mitsukoshi Dpt.
Store in Taipei
(photo Aug. 22 2015)
and
in SOGO Dpt. Store (2-27-2016).
★
Din Tai Fung USA website
(http://DinTaiFungusa.com)
has also been advertising
a similar one in its front-page.
(tests till present at
9-17-2015)
ps: the China Times analyzed
losing Michelin most likely it's
because of inconsistent quality
problem.
(http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20141031001358-260405)
★
Apple
Daily, 9-22-2016: Din Tai Fung
did not get any star in Michelin
Shanghai (not in Taipei, HK as
well)
★
Taiwan prosecutor charged
Din Tai Fung for violating
copyrights law / UDN 4-12-2018,
https://udn.com/news/story/11315/3081736
controversial fish
pic.:
TVBS (Taiwan) 2-10-2018: experts
expressed their concern or scares of eating Basa
fish imported from Vietnam.
Some international experts like
Vancouver Aquarium's Ocean Wise doesn't
recommend consumers buy Basa,
some states of the US even
banned Basa, for using illegal
antibiotics, questioning polluted Mekong
river and the practices used to
farm Basa, those factors.
Some 5 star hotels in Taiwan
seemed love to serve
cheap-price Basa ―
however, they used English name Bassa or Balsa ( not fish
name ), instead of Basa, but, the
Chinese name used is Basa for
sure.
pic. left is a
hot dish served by a
Taipei's 5 star hotel buffet
restaurant, "Thailand
steamed Bassa fish"
(photo at 4-24-2018);
Pic. right
is another top hotel
Sheraton Taipei's buffet food -
"Balsa" fish
( photo in Nov. 2017 ).
◎
◆
World famous
5 star hotel hides fish
name on the sign-plate, we can't
even know those are sea fish or
fresh-water fish
quora (2015) had
some discussions about "why don't
westerners eat river fish?".
Independent UK
1-11-2015:
Chemicals in fresh water fish
put health at risk
- according to a new
report, they may be putting
their health at risk...
Singapore's
foodie TV program < Cook Eat
China > likes to ask chef
the fish name before they try.
Medical
book <you can conquer cancer>
(target readers include patients
and healthy people)advised to
know what-about
before eating fish or seafood
......
◆
pic. left:
World famous hotel Shangri La's
in Taipei at 5-18-2018: upon my
question, the
kitchen man answered it's
Dory fish ("多利魚")，but
had no idea about sea fish or
fresh water fish
(rivers, lakes, etc).
Taiwan's CTS TV news (華視新聞)
at 4-27-2017 reported (news.cts.com.tw/cts/life/201704/201704271863633.html#.Wv6-Rjoh2Uk):
all
Dory
fishes in Taiwan were fake,
foodie
gourmets have been fooling for a
long times !
Dory
then were renamed
as Basa
―
a fresh-water fish farmed in Vietnam, S.E. Asia
。
Real John Dory is
also named as
Cat Fish,
the author had many in Florida's
buffet restaurant (even "none
star" restaurant marked fish
name ),
however, in Taiwan's "5 star"
hotel can only eat fake Dory ???
◆
pic. right: Another world famous 5 star hotel
(headqtr in USA) in
Taiwan also
hide the fish name
(5-17-2018)。Westerners
tourists may like to know
they're eating sea fish or
fresh-water fish ?
The chef confirmed steamed fish
are basa (9-12-2018)
pic.: <Cook Eat
China> TV program introduced
ChongQing (China) low-price
spicy hotpot using Catfish as
main ingredient,
is that a Basa fish imported
from Vietnam ? if not,
Taiwan's 5 star restaurants may
not be better than China's
average
(non star-rated)
restaurants
!?
ref to
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av7493983/
◎
◆
pic. left:
Weird !! the deep fried fish in
world well-known Grand Hotel Taipei buffet restaurant has no any signs
(July 2018)，upon
my question,
the
kitchen said it's snapper (鯛魚),
then John Dory, eventually said Taiwan is very "good" at this, so he does
not know what it exactly is.
◆
pic. right: CTS (華視新聞) 4-27-2017(news.cts.com.tw/cts/life/201704/201704271863633.html#.Wv6-Rjoh2Uk)
reported Dory in Taiwan are fake! For details pls
ref to the CTS website as above.
◎
◆
pic. : Expert in TVBS
(2-14-2018) advised that
so called Parabramis Pekinensis(魴), Dori, Basa all are Catfish (鯰) from
Vietnam, basically,
the Dori we eat are not Dori, the Patagonian
(鱈) we eat actually are Toothfish (比目魚).
Further more, those have
addictive and even medicine problems.
◆
Too many fakes
and tricks !! even in 5
star hotel restaurants.
Do we have fake chickens ? tricky coffee ...?
.
◎
pic.:
Formosa TV , 2-19-2018: Many
hotel buffets had bad records of
using
bad
food materials or ingredients before, even
now, some kind of official
certified marks may not be a
food-safety assurance in the
near future.
◎
sushi ? eat it SOON !!
pic.:
United Daily (聯合報) 6-10-2017:
Gov. urged eating raw fish as SOON
as possible !!
12 minutes after those raw fish
slices left cold-storage
(7c),
the number of Vibrio
Parahaemolyticus
(腸炎弧菌)
keeps growing double every 20
minutes
(倍數滋生)
or so,
in
normal temperature
(常溫
30c~), ...
ref to
https://udn.com/news/story/7186/2512857;TVBS,11-1-2016.
◆
Shangri La's Hotel in Taipei
Taiwan (6F, 8-28-2018)
expressed, their raw fish slices
leaving cold-storage will
display on serving plates for 45 minutes
for customer's taking. All
their raw seafood (Tuna,
Swordfish,
Great Amberjack(紅魽),
etc)
came from DonGun(東港), Taiwan.
◆
Sheraton (9-12-2018) said they
don't set time limit to display
raw fish slices because of a
cold generator being installed below
(used ices before).
I have not check if the
temperature is good enough.
◆
A Hong Kong media revealed some
widely-known Japanese restaurant
in Taiwan displayed raw fish and
other sushi more than 30 minutes.
◆
GM ? national scandal !!
◆
pic.:
Famous 5 star hotel buffet's
tofu (豆腐皮,
July
23, 2018)
did not have any sign,
upon my req., they answered it's not GM-free soybean, therefore, some sign must
be there
○
◆
pic:
Grand Hotel Taipei has the most
number of famous customers among all Taiwan's hotels. However,
according
to the photo 6-8-2018, they used
genetically modified soybean
(基因改造黃豆)
◆
pic.:
American
Sherwood Hotel in Taipei, photo 5-28-2018
Braised Bean Curd with
Crab Powder tasted good,
but the chef did
not answer my question if those bean-curds were made from
G.M.(genetic
modified) beans - which were called "national scandal"
(國家醜聞) at
The China Times, 3-29-2013.
◎○
sanitary ! !
◆
◆
pic. right: a fly in a most
popular buffet restaurant
of 5 star hotel (Mar. 2019)
◆
pic. left: a flying insect was
caught by me
in Taiwan's 5 star hotel restaurant,
one of
most popular ones. (Sept. 2018)
I also saw a fly in
another Taiwan's world famous hotel restaurant
in 2018,
and a top hotel buffet
restaurant in South Korea about 20 years
ago.
◆
東森新聞(EBC TV news),
12-27-2017
Customers saw a fly (「果蠅」)
flying around,
and another one fly in their soup, while
having
buffet in 5 star hotel restaurant (NT 1000
per person)
https://news.ebc.net.tw/news.php?nid=92189
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8O7sI_Wmsg
◆
◎
fake fish color by DEADLY CO.
◆
pic. left:
watermelon,
grape,
tuna
in Sheraton buffet
(top~bottom)
◆
pic. middle:
tuna in
Shangri La's
Taipei
(8-9-2018)
◆
pic. right:
Tuna
and
Salmon
in a 5 star hotel
(9-12-2018)
◆
Raw Tuna fish slices - how
do you choose
for 100% safety
??
No too beautiful-color ones !
No dark brown (tan) ones !
◆
University studies
(高雄海科大)
found
that
80% of raw fishes (Cobia, Tuna,
Sword-Fish, Tilapia 鯛) in Taiwan market
were
stained
――
business
men pump
CO. (carbon
monoxide)
into those fishes in an
enclosed space
for beautiful or bright color
look / CTS TV news,
2-20-'06
◆
Fishes adding CO is illegal in Europe,
Canada, Japan,
Korea, Singapore, etc, because of
possible food-poisoning, or even causing
Sepsis to die / Epoch Times,
2-20-'06
◆TVBS
8-15-2018: M.D.江守山 commented
Taiwanese government ignoring
pumping CO into fishes which is
illegal in Taiwan (法律禁止
政府未執法) ,
therefore Taiwanese have risk of
eating
slough and some unknown
consequences.
Some other business people used
chemical addictives (e.g.,
檸檬酸鈉)
to keep raw-fish's color unchanged.
Red meat fishes after being frozen
are still "bright red" colour
might be "processed" meat.
(ref.
to 《食在安心》
book
by
江守山)
◆
TVBS
12-12-2013:
Nitrite，NO2−
( '亚硝酸盐' may cause cancer ) may be
applied to raw tuna fish for bright red color
look - ref to
https://news.tvbs.com.tw/life/513840
◆
ETtoday
News :
Cutting red-meat fishes like
Tuna to slices made its
Myoglobin (「肌紅蛋白」)，iron
having oxidized and its meat
becoming tan or brown in
color. Brownish-red colored
meat can indicate spoilage.
Taiwanese gov. advised that
people should avoid eating those
brown colored, or
drying out, or no
longer elastic
fish meat, which were cut long
time ago.
Eating cooked fish is perfect
safe.
(health.ettoday.net/news/1017291)
◆
Daily Mail, UK reported an
American guy having raw Salmon
almost every day had a 167 cm
parasite in his stomach.
pic. : TVBS news of Taiwan - color was fixed in 3 seconds, harming our health
pic. ( left side ) :
Tuna before and after being illegally treated with CO.
pic.: ( right side ) : Salmon
before and after being illegally
treated with CO.
pic.: Media of UK reported sushi raw fishes are being treated
with 'DEADLY' CO (carbon
monoxide)
to fix the color of the flesh
(ref
to May 2018 https://www.auliving.com.au/zh-tw/201805/91186.html)
◎
pic. left:
Wild
Salmon ( without or with little
oil stripping), pic. middle:
farmed
salmon, pic. right:
shrimps in 5 star hotels
◆
Almost all 5 star hotel buffet
restaurants served farmed Salmon, instead of wild Salmon
(expensive).
wild Salmon are orange in color,
because they eat
shrimps and crabs containing carotenoid, farmed
Salmon suppose are sort of gray, because business won't feed them with
shrimps which are more expensive than Salmon itself.
However, many dye Salmon by
canthaxanthin
(斑蝥黃素) to be bright orange in color, eating many
those Salmon hurts your liver.
◆
In 5 star hotels in Europe etc, you might see fresh nature
"black-headed" shrimps, some Taiwanese business men used chemical
addictive (「蝦鮮」保鮮劑，亞現酸鈉plus聚合磷酸鈉)
to modify that unpopular black color, eating too many those shrimps
might cause allergy、asthma those problems ... ref. to 《食在安心》book by 江守山MD
◆
Lots of seafood problems / Epoch Times (大紀元, 3-14-2017):Okura Prestige Tpe
(大倉久和, a 5 star hotel) sold expired frozen shrimps, molded taro (vegetable 芋)
etc;
SETN news ( 三立新聞 5-16-2016): Some 5 star hotels in northern Taiwan sold
black-hearted expired seafoods ; LTN (5-17-2016): 5 star hotels Ambassador
and Howard (國賓、福華)
clarified this news;
Apple Daily (蘋果日報 6-7-2016):
Sheraton (喜來登) 's
white shrimps contained bleaching agent
(漂白劑)，4
times higher than the legal standard，Ranina
(Spanner crabs
旭蟹)
contained heavy medal Cadmium poisoning (重金屬镉) 14%
higher than the standard...
◎
Not a civilized country
◆
In May
2019, Taiwan High Court Prosecutor Office's chief prosecutor conclusion of a criminal
suit case has shown :
(1) ignorance of two eye-witnesses testimony-documents
( to prove a 5 star hotel restaurant chef did sniff again and again at customers)
given in presence of police officials in police station.
(2) ignorance of
some phrases to humiliate dining customers (e.g., "the exit is
there ! the toilet is out there !!" ) 'shouted' by a 5 star hotel
restaurant staff ...
Therefore, the site can conclude that
Taiwan is not a foodie-friendly environment or tourists-friendly country, or
even not a very civilized country - compared with American's
restaurant rules - ref. to
Forbes, 9-3-2012,
New York Times, 10-29-2009.
◆ Restaurant servers of some 5 star hotels in Taiwan,
repeatedly sniffed at customers (excuse or 'reason' is getting cold)、took
back used plates by "dragging over the table" and making noises
、gossiped
with low class phrase or slang ...... Taiwan's
5 star hotel restaurant servers (not all) even failed to follow server rules for
American's non
star restaurants - ref. to articles in New York Times and Forbes
!!
◆ Apple
Daily (蘋果日報), 10-7-2018: customers - servers inequality
(平等尊重) in Taiwan's restaurants?.....
customers don't respect restaurant
service. (顧客不尊重餐廳服務)
being added in these Chinese heritage arts - pork stone and cabbage jade
Butter-Head: so, we can eat these
health foods now?!
a creativity by Z. Zu
pic. below: former US
president Bush was in Taiwan's restaurant - Beijing Do It True; the
restaurant
said Bush had their dishes
ps: DIT doesn't have Bush's
favorite, Beijing roast
duck, the best duck is Celestial (天廚) restaurant's
Snake Alley, HuaXi street's special
― snake (Cobra, etc) soup (a bowl
for USD 5 ), snake gall, snake blood
Pic. above is a huge golden-color Patteraless (python)
Vedio below shows peeling a painful, curling, long snake for a
regimen-meal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUX6sVx3pFU
◎ ◆
2.
World best restaurants (2013&2015)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World's_50_Best_Restaurants
http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/
There's
no any Taiwanese restaurant on the
best-50 list.
On 2015's top 50 list, Japan is No. 8,
on
2013's list, top 10 all are Western restaurants (No. 1,
Spainish El
Celler de Can Roca、No. 2,
Danish Noma、No. 3
Italia
、4.
Spain
、5.
USA
、6.
Brasil
、7.
U.K.
、8.
Spain
、9.
Austria
、10.
Germany),
the highest ranking Asian restaurant is
No.20 Narisawa which is located in Tokyo
Japan, No. 75 is Hong Kong's
Candonese restaurant "龍景軒".
◆
3. According to New York Times
(12-12-2015), French La Liste's top 10 best restaurants include 3
Asian restaurants, but no any Taiwanese restaurant was included, the
Liberty Times (12-13-2015) mentioned no Taiwan's restaurants included in
top 1000 list.
◆
4.
Miele Guide (2012) : No any
Taiwanese restaurant is included in top
20 Asian restaurants list.
ps1:
Taiwan's restaurants intro. by world
reports pls. ref. to the table at end of
this web-pages
◎
◎
◎
◎
2.
Taiwanese food -
night
market, street food, small eats ( 小吃)
1.
◎
Taipei
mayor Ko: Our night markets and markets are too dirty ! United Daily
1-20-2020: Ko wants them to be cleaner, and the food safety standard should be
upgraded.
◎
Liberty Times (自由時報)
1-6-2019 : Taipei City Hall's "Model Night Markets" project,
aims at "
Japanese tourists are willing to sit down to eat "，however,
quite many stalls of Nin-Xia night market, an used to be highly cooperative
tourists site,
opposed, in that elevating the hygienic level and class increases their running
costs (new tables & seats, tableware, etc)，
and might loses their characteristics, and human touch
...
◎
Michelin
Guide Taipei announced at 4-10-2019
starred restaurants of Taipei Taiwan.
Unlike other Asian street food stalls
earning some Michelin stars (e.g., Singapore's Liao Fan soya sauce chicken rice &
noodle, Hong Kong's Mammy Pancake and Thailand Bangkok's Jay Fai's wok-fired
dishes), there's no any Taiwanese local specialty (night market cheap eats,
street food) won any starred
title.
Furthermore,
even Michelin 3 star
winner
Le Palais
Hotel was found
snacks containing
Hydrogen peroxide
(過氧化氫) and
Benzoic acid
(苯甲酸),
many tourism hotels
/
5 star hotels were found food
hygiene not up to standard, e.g., 5 star hotels used expired
no-good
ingredients, such as
HsinChu and Taipei's Ambassador Hotel, The
Grand Hotel, Regent Formosa, and so on, reported by
CTV evening news, BCC ,
LTN
(12-19-2019)
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/3014179
, therefore it's within reason for us to suspect food-safety of night market's
cheap eats.
◎
Michelin
Guide Taipei announced at 3-14-2018 starred restaurants of Taipei Taiwan.
Unlike other Asian street food stalls
earning Michelin star (e.g., Singapore's Liao Fan soya sauce chicken rice &
noodle, Hong Kong's Mammy Pancake or Thailand Bangkok's Jay Fai's wok-fired
dishes), there's no any Taiwanese street food (night market cheap eats) won any starred
title. please
ref. to
Taiwan night
markets
.
◎ The United Daily (3-1-2017):
Many Taiwanese night markets closed down due to lacking
of distinguishing feature or quality,
and the number of Chinese tourists sudden reducing.
◎
The China Times
(5-26-2015), a critique in media
commentary<掉漆的文創> mentioned :"Something
we should pay attention to is, a Hong
Kong poll on the net selected Taiwan as
the most disappointed point of interest
or attraction on this
planet
―
Taiwan's night market is the only place
being worthy of visiting".
◎
The
China Times (8-8-2015) : Taiwan
failed to establish a high-quality image
of tourism & travel, but just impressed
tourists a place filled with cheap
goods, e.g., small-eat, because of
marketing strategy problem.
2.
◎
CNN
readers to
Vote (June 15,
2015): "Which
destination
has the
world's best
food?
",...please
ref. to
Taiwan night
markets
of this site
groups.
◎
CNN's
article ( 2 -11-
2015) "10 things Taiwan does better than anywhere else",...◎
CNN
Go
(3-23-2012)
selected
Taiwan's
Taipei as
one among
"Asia's
10 greatest
street foods
cities"...◎
Business
Insider
(6-10-2015)
introduced
Taiwan's
tour
―― Let's start with the food.
...
please ref.
to
Taiwan night
markets
.
◎
But, this
web-site
comments:
(1)
stinky
tofu (臭豆腐): This
tasteful
food may has
some
problems,
including
G.M.(genetic
modified) soy
as material, and
deep-fried
food being not
healthy
―
widely known
already.
(2) beef noodle (牛肉麵): They usually use
a source
namely DorBanJian(豆瓣醬),
so, better
select
restaurants
with
reputation
to avoid aflatoxin
which may
contains in
豆瓣醬 and may
leads to
liver
cancer.
(3) oyster omelet (蚵仔煎) :
It is most
typical
Taiwanese
food ( you
can see
this street
snack
in any night
market),
but not
exquisite &
elaborated
food.
The oyster
omelet
in Discovery
channel uses
peanut-powder.
Be careful
of fatal aflatoxin
may be in
peanut-powder in infamous shops,
since
a
famous
peanut
product made
in USA found aflatoxin
before.
The Liberty Times (9-18-2015):
some businesses used soaking in
phosphatic water to enlarger
oysters, formaldehyde (HCHO)
to extend
oysters expiration, borax(硼砂)
to whiten (or avoid dark / black
color)
oysters ...
details (night markets)
details (dangerous foods in
Taiwan)
3. CNN（7-24-2015）recommanded
in large sized page that "40 Taiwanese foods we can't live without"，although
Bizarre Foods of Andrew Zimmern in Nov. '15 mentioned Americans
are afraid of street foods ...
No.1
is Braised pork rice ("金鋒滷肉飯"
10
Roosevelt Road, Section 1, Taipei).
No.2 is beef noodle (
Lin Dong Fang store, Taipei, 274 Ba-de Rd., and
Lao Wang, 15 Tao Yuan Street ，Pin Chuan Lan
"品川蘭" , No. 10, Alley 11, Lane 216, Zhongxiao East
Road, Section 2, Taipei)。
No.3 is
oyster omelet ( Lai Ji 198-22 Min-sen
W. Rd. ,Taipei Nin-Xia night market,),
No.4 is Bubble tea ("台中春水堂"48 Yi-shu St.,
Longjing, Taichung , and "台南翰林茶館"313, Section 2, Minzu
Road, Tainan 。
No. 5 is Milkfish (虱目魚/ "小隱私廚"65
Yongkang St., Taipei) 。ps: this site thinks the
grilled/roast sea-milkfish (烤虱目魚, one piece for NT295) smells good but probably too
salty or bit burned for some people (my families).
CNN's Next 35 are ...Taiwan
night markets ◎
Discovery (USA) called oyster omelet as "Taiwanese Viagra".
Taiwanese government announced it will spend about USD 30 million dollars on promoting
"country brand" by popularizing Taiwanese typical foods,
oyster omelet and stinky tofu (Chou doufu).
Although
Bizarre Foods of Andrew Zimmern in Nov. '15 mentioned Americans
are afraid of street foods ...
Tourists' popular point of interests -
Shih-Lin night market's "Grandmom's family" (「阿婆之家」)
oyster omelet was one of 2 stores
earliest-selling oyster
omelets in Taiwan.
"Loyalty" / "Zhong Cheng Hau"
(「忠誠號」)
is another most famous Taiwanese oyster omelette in Shi-Lin night
market, Taipei, Taiwan.
Discovery (USA) visited and introduced
"The Circle Side" ("圓環邊") oyster omelet,
which indeed smells better.
(46 Nin-Xia Rd. Taipei, in tourists district - Nin-Xia night market).
CNN
(July 24, 2015)
ranked
"Lai Ji" oyster
omelet as No.3 among "40 Taiwanese foods we can't live
without". Lots of "Free Range"/native chicken eggs at
front-door as its advertisement, Lai locates tourism area - Nin Xia night
market.
◎
◎
CNN（
7-24-2015）"40 Taiwanese foods we
can't live without" -
ranking No.1
is
Gin-Fon(金鋒)Braised
pork rice,
which is next to Nan-Men Market
(on Roosevelt Rd. - for honoring
US former president);
NT50 for Large-sized rice, NT30
Small-sized. But, pls.
note : no braised egg (NT50) in CNN website's pic. (8-4-2015) is
included, besides,
according to United Daily (4-30-2011,
6-5-2014),
braised pork rice was selected
as one of 10 unhealthy,
dangerous Taiwanese foods in
night market (see
tbl. below), however this
never affects a long queue at
front of Gin-Fon restaurant.
◎
CNN（7-24-2015）recommands
"40 Taiwanese foods that we can't
live without", the picture above
is No.2 food
―
Lin-Dong-Fang beef noodle in Ba-de road,
Taipei. (neighborhood of
the headquarter of
KMT,
Taiwan's ruling political-party
'08 ~ '16) you can
see a long queue in each weekday's
dining time , but,
It
looks bit awful, even it
tastes awesome,
how
do Westerners feel about the
"restaurant"?
another one CNN recommended is TaoYuan Street Lao Wang beef
noodle, their beef is
pink-colored (look like roast
beef), very tender, and less
salty than Lin D.F.'s.
ps: They moved to
a neat shop in the next
lane in 2018, moved to BaDe Rd.
near FuXin N., mar 2019
◎
Taiwan, a
ripping-tourists-off paradise
Shi-lin night market
Shi-Mun Din (西門町)
Keng-Tin (墾丁大街)
◆
pic.: Apple Daily headline news 4-8-2018: Taiwan became a
ripping-tourists-off paradise, scholars criticized
Taiwan government kept blind eyes and did nothing about this.
ps: CTS 4-11-2018: Keng-Tin's ripping tourists off already seriously damaged Taiwan image.
United Daily 10-24-2019:
some of the night markets or street food stalls in Taipei do not provide tourists or customers
with price-list menu, or their menu is not clear enough, now Taipei gov. is trying to do something for this ...
蘋果日報 (Apple Daily), 12-9-2018:
ripping-off controversies
what's about
Dec., 2018 /
Yi-Lan City, LuoDong night market (宜蘭羅東夜市)
(was blamed as 2nd Keng-Tin)
crispy spare-ribs (排骨酥), NTD 60 for only 4 pieces
Dec., 2018 / Rei-Feng night market,
Kao-hsiung (高雄瑞豐夜市)
water-boiled corns, NTD 220 for 4 pieces, was scolded if chose leaving
April, 2018 /
Shi-Lin or Shih-Lin night market, Taipei (士林夜市)
fresh-cut fruits , NTD 30 for 100g ,
NT1500 for
7 bags
(Korean tourist complained)
April, 2018 /
Keng-Tin night market,
Kao-hsiung
(墾丁夜市)
both look alike,
minced pork on noodles (肉燥乾麵) NT180,
3-colored plain noodles (三色拌麵) NT220
Dec. , 2017 /
Keng-Tin night market,
Kao-hsiung
(墾丁夜市)
<吳師傅魯味> - braised flavour (滷味2盤) 2 plates NTD1845
Jan., 2017 /
Kao-hsiung City, Liu-Ho night market (六和夜市)
stir fried La's Jargon (炒烏魚膘) NT1680,
price down to NTD840 after reporting to the police
ps: Consumer Ombudsman Officer (消保官) advises asking price and quantity in advance for self- protection
ps2: Taipei City Gov. gave 174 tickets to
Shih-Lin night market
◎
◎◎
CNN
introduced Taiwanese food at least 3 times within 6 months, seems bit unusual,
2.5 However,
Are those "Taiwanese
small eat" healthy to humans??
◎
◎
◆The China Times (中國時報), 2-28-2019,
opinion (editorial) questions Taiwan officials are trying
very hard to hide the
epidemic state
of Marek's virus in chicken eggs ...
◆The Apple Daily (蘋果日報), 2-22-2019: Food safety is still Taiwanese most
concern issue since Melamine event of 2008, Fipronil
residue in eggs and pesticide residue in vegetables recently
drew attentions again. (brief) / by legislator & National
Taiwan Univ. professor
吳焜裕
◆
Jiang So-San M.D.
(江守山,
12-2018,
<早安健康 - 名醫餐桌>
) :
「Food
safety issue
matters
!」"generally
speaking, what we eat nowadays are "very dirty".
Minimize the times of eating/dining out to
control poison exposure to be within a margin of
safety (控制毒物暴露量在一定程度之內)，Taiwan
ranks world No.1 in usage of pesticides per unit of land area (單位土地面積使用農藥)，according
to a study by National Yang-Ming University, 98% of urine samples randomly chosen from kids in
Taipei, Taiwan, contain pesticide,
the Plasticizer of dust in our
houses as well as pregnant women's urine both rank world No.1.
Besides, there're really too much
addictives inside our food
。
More than most of Taiwan's restaurants currently use artificial chemical soy
sauce(化學水解醬油)，which
inevitably produces chemical 3-MCPD
(單氯丙二醇) and may
results in tongue cancer,
kidney cancer, lliver cancer,
we
all ate them too much already !
Taiwanese over-value
economic price, therefore we got too many terrible stuffs in home or in our
body.
◆The
China Times,
10-20-2018 opinion (editorial) https://opinion.chinatimes.com/20181019003889-262101 :
Taiwan's food safety failed again and again,
Dioxin, Fipronil poison-eggs in last year, Nicarbazin illegal drug residue event
in this year.
Europe was very cautious about Fipronil event, in contrast, Taiwan did
nothing about it. Even worse, Taiwan officials hide
Nicarbazin issue from Taiwanese people to
baby related business ― indulge business to
retrieve problematic eggs and then resell them as promotion goods..
Why do high-ranking officials always fudge Taiwanese people's
only, and humblest request ？?
(brief)
◆
Chang
Gung Mem. Hospital professor Yin M.D.
(殷宗海, Doctor, Univ. of London ):
Minimize the times of dining out to
protect your health ! ( ref. to book
<食品不安全的年代如何自保>("how
to survive in this bad food-security
time",
April 2016))
◆
◆The
China Times,
5-21-2018 :
Taiwan food safety became nothing but a slogan for the government's
relaxation of pesticide residue standards in these 2 years. TVBS,
9-12-2017 : Scholar (中興univ. professor 曾德賜) expressed the amount ( per hectare )
of application of pesticide in Taiwan was ranked world No.1, according to
India's study.
◆
◆
Apple Daily, 4-25-2018 : Taiwan's food
safety systems failed for gov. lab's intentionally throwing away test samples
immediately after the tests,
which is similar to destroying the evidence
and trace.
（方儉）https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/daily/20180425/37995680.
●
Apple Daily, 11-20-2017 : Almost all
world countries are more and more strict
with food safety, only Taiwan is more
and more relaxed in legislating for food
safety. In this way, how can
Taiwan have a reputation on "fine food
kingdom"
?
(breif)
/
by
邱致穎, chair, and teacher of food science,
TungHai University.
●
UDN ( medical edition, 3-31-2018) :
"food safety problems happened again and
again, I prefer to eat at home" (食安連環爆
我在家吃便當)
◆
◆
Apple Daily News
(蘋果日報)8-28-2015, A2 Prime News Edition
The incidence rate of Taiwanese
people suffering colon/rectal cancer was ranked world No.1 (2nd is Korea, 3rd
Slovakia) ,
Taipei Medical University Hospital's director of surgeons expressed Taiwan's
food scandals constantly happened in recent years, many black-heart tainted
foods containing
Carcinogen
(cancer producer) is a factor causing high incidence rate.
◎ ◆
TTV (台視 2-11-2017 12:24pm) news reports: People dining out should be
carefulnot to eat food containing
Borax, Sodium borate(硼砂),fluorescent brightener(螢光增白劑),
plasticisers (朔化劑), Rongalite (Sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate dihydrate吊白塊 )...
deep-fried foods, plastic container,
and pesticide residue
may cause cancer.
◆
United Daily News, 10-13-2015: "A great survey to Taiwan's aged-100
centenarians" found that "... they seldom dine out".
◎ ◆
The Liberty Times - Weekender
9.18.2015
Industrial bleaching agent,plumping agent
with Aluminum,
Industrial adhesives Maleic Acid, Sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate
dihydrate
(CH3NaO3S) ,
Gypsum of pharmaceutic ,
corn starch, phosphatic, formaldehyde (HCHO),
borax,
etc were used as foods addictives
for better selling. (for full details pls. ref. to Liberty Times)
Business Today.no.856, 2013 : not only banned colouring
agent,
copper
chlorophyllin cooking oil, toxic
('poisonous') starch,
dangerous levels of industrialplasticisers,
poor-quality rice, deceptive advertising bakery ... were exposed
in Taiwan media, but also dangerous materials/ingredients like hydrogen peroxide, Rongalite (Sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate dihydrate吊白塊 ) ,
Formaldehyde Solution(福馬林),
borax(硼砂) ,
salicylic acid (水楊酸),
NaNO2 nitrite (亞硝酸鹽),
fluorescent whitening/bleaching agent (螢光增白劑), copper salts
(铜鹽), Sudan (蘇丹红),
Butter Yellow(奶油黃), Rhodamine B (鹽基桃紅精), Auramine
(黃色色素鹽基性芥黃),
H202 (過氧化氫), 4-ethoxyphenylurea(乙氧基苯脲),
Lead oxide (氧化铅),
potassium bromate；bromic acid potassium salt (溴酸钾)
etc food additives were found in Taiwan's black-heart food and cuisine industries.● CLICK
for dangerous foods in details : food scare in
Taiwan
◎
◆ Apple Daily
11-20-2015: Taiwan food scandals is still
flourishing and still in the ascendant, even the law was
amended to increase punishment, major events include
poisonous (Methyl yellow,
chemical 二甲基黃 illegally added)
dried bean curd, chemical-soak kelp, sea tangle, pepper
powders with industrial-used Magnesium carbonate (工業級碳酸鎂), and Unagi Kabayaki
eels with Malachite
green, tea drink with DDT residue,
food scraps and kitchen waste entered food market
supply chain, besides, food imported from Japan high-radiation area were hidden
or covered / NTU professor 林鈺雄. Furthermore,
The Liberty Times (9-4-2016): black-heart sauce entered night market, and
street-front shops
―
small-eat
shops, breakfast shops ... in Northern Taiwan for 1 year already.
◆
Apple Daily News
(蘋果日報)8-29-2015, Prime News Edition
Dark brown sugars
commercially available all contain
Carcinogen ("丙烯醯胺",
acrylamide , inspected results - max up to 2740
ppb ). Drinking one cup (700 c.c.) of Pearl Milk Tea (full brown sugar)
per day, may have risk of getting cancer.
◎
◆
Top 10 dangerous street food in Shih-lin
night market
(<Liberty Times自由時報> & <United
Daily News聯合報>, 10.1.2013)
Ps: (1) advice: share food with your friend, peel the fried
chicken skin, etc
(2) measure Kcal compared with : 1 bowl of cooked rice has about 280
Kcal
◎
◆
National Taiwan
Normal University - graduate school of Chemistry,
dean Dr. Wu (化學所長吳家誠教授)'s book <Those black-heart products
toxin-experts never buy
(毒物專家絕不買的黑心商品)>
(Nov. 2013): Most of the time I eat at home, and has never dined out in
street-side shops / small-eat markets (路邊攤),
because those small-eat shops usually/always
do not
meet the minimum standards of
cleanliness.
In case I can't reject some dinner party or must dine out, I select only
some restaurants I fully trust. Besides, I've never touched processed food
or cured products, and any drinks commercially available(市售飲料)
in Taiwan, particularly, pearl milk tea which already is a world known Taiwanese
food. PS:
The China Times (8-15-2015):
Taiwanese favorite drinks contain high Kcal/g heat, you will gain 5.1kg if having pearl milk tea one regular cup
(not less-sugar option)
per day for 2 months. Green Tea with Yakult(多多)'s
Heat 341 Kcal/g, which is 3.2 times the upper limit
of free sugar(游離糖) advised by WHO., Yakult drink, Orange
juice, milk tea are high-heat too.
90% of what we eat and use contain poison or toxin - The secret that
Taiwanese business won't tell you. pic. is the cover
of consultant of Taiwan's government & professor Wu's book
<Those black-heart products poison-experts never buy
(毒物專家絕不買的黑心商品)>
May get roseola、feel
like throwing up、diarrhea
、shock to stupor; coma;
muzziness. Taiwan law already
prohibited the use of food/ food products患者皮紅疹、嘔吐、腹瀉diarrhea
、休克致昏迷、已禁用於食品
ps:
ps: expert M.D. expressed :
(1)Taiwan's law is behind of medical studies, we already ate lots of
legal but suspicious dangerous food addictives.
(2) medical tests only for single
chemical compound, not for 2+ chemical compounds (which may be
interactive to increase probability of getting cancer) .台灣美食風險(1)法律落後醫學，我們早已吃下許多合法但疑慮食品添加物
(2)檢驗只針對單一化合物，若化合物相互作用則不查
English version :
Food in
Taiwan(
危險美食)
◎
◆
<CTV>
(中視
"新聞一點通"),
9.25.2013 13:35pm
Even you cook by yourself, still have chance to eat some black-heart
ingredients/materials... ("台灣小吃
幾乎淪陷"
就算你三餐自己烹調 也不見得避開所有黑心食材)
◎
◆
<BBC>,
6-6-2013
"台湾来鸿：危机四伏的饮食"
High-risk industrial starch foods like
oden (黑轮, fish cake), Taiwanese meatball, black tapioca pearl (粉圆) are
popular Taiwanese small eats in night markets, Most of toxic/poisonous
soy sauce were sold and delivered to night markets, including best-known
Shih-Lin night markets... Taiwan is the only country eating cured
products made by animal-feed,
◆
<Business Today>, Taiwan
Pic. above: The secret that restaurant bosses
don't dare to speak
out !
Fatal & Horrible
cooking materials/ingredients !
A top chef : "These cuisine are made for customers, you guys
(assistants in kitchen) don't eat them ! "
Pic. right: Taiwan's government is
unable to do administration on food industry, all Taiwanese people are
in deep risk !
Black hearted soy sauce harms the whole Taiwan!
it appears almost all night markets,
snack shops, restaurants ...
<Business Today> no. 856
◆
The New York Times, The Economist (11.29.2014)
comment and analyzed that a series of food safety scandals is one of few main factors causing the KMT,
Taiwan's ruling party, has suffered one of its worst electoral defeats since
Chiang Kai-shek and his forces fled to the island at the end of Chinese civil
war in 1949.
◆ Taiwanese government
never does some soul searching and corrects the wrong, according to
Business Weekly (No. 1436, June 2015), "It's weirdo !!, Taiwanese
government's food-safety check only focuses on 3 dried products - dried daylily, dried
radish, and preserved fruits (snacks)", National Taiwan University professor Wu K.Y. comments
it as "Completely evading the crucial point", "those 3 items are very
low risky products", and "Taiwan's food safety is nothing but a
slogan (台灣食安只有口號-apple daily
3-28-2015
http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20150328/582381/)".
◎
◆
United Daily News(聯合報)/Liberty Times(自由時報)/China Times(中國時報)
etc, 6.5.2014, ― Top 10 horrible combination-foods (十大恐怖外食)
in Taiwan for office ladies/men and dining out groups, please click to
read details in Taiwan night markets
◆
The
China Times
(8-15-2015): Drinks commercial available
contain high-heat, and may cause cancer (Apple Daily
(蘋果日報)8-29-2015, Prime News Edition
;
United Daily News(聯合報)8-29-2015)，please
click to read details in Taiwan night markets .
◆
Taiwan dangerous food, pls. click
Food Scare for full details !
◎◎SET
TV News (9-4-2018) : an experienced chef revealed a cruel truth
about all-you-can-eat buffet in Taiwan ― "You become a loser
(虧本)
as soon as you step in buffet restaurant ! ".
Why ?? Please read
this website for further details.
pic. :
No.1 "5 star hotel buffet"
(Chinese version),
on US Google search engine,
7-16-2019.
Although
world media always introduced Taiwan's "small eat", Taiwanese also
love "big eat" ――
There's a widely-known slang in here:
Taiwan has 3 "worth-the-value" stuffs: health
insurance, labor insurance, and all you can eat buffet.(台灣有三"寶"，健保、勞保、吃到飽)
Apple Daily of
Taiwan, 9-5-2018: All you can eat
buffet is very popular in Taiwan,
main-stream buffet
emphasizes themed, diversified,
and
delicate, average price is
about NT1000. The China Times
(中國時報) 2-3-2018 ,
United Daily (聯合報)
9-23-2017: Taiwanese love having all-you-can-eat buffet,
even economic is still bad.
The article, Taiwan's
5 star hotel
- all
you can eat buffet , has been ranking world top on
US Bing, google and yahoo for
years, pls. click for full text.
● 5 star hotel scandals -
◆ A
book (Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital,
Taiwan Veterans General Hospital's physician Jiang So-San M.D.
江守山
"食在安心" (10-2014))
said many 5 star hotel restaurants don't wash vegetables ... some 5 star
hotels made sashimi raw fish slices by using fresh-water fishes, this may
increase the probability to get cancer
(for
details
台灣餐廳
or
台灣美食Taiwan
Night Markets ) ;
◆
Epoch Times (大紀元, 3-14-2017):Okura Prestige Tpe
(大倉久和, a 5 star hotel) sold expired frozen shrimps, molded taro (vegetable 芋)
etc; ◆ SETN news ( 三立新聞 5-16-2016): Some 5 star hotels in northern Taiwan sold
black-hearted expired seafoods ; ◆ LTN (5-17-2016): 5 star hotels Ambassador
and Howard (國賓、福華)
clarified this news;
◆
Apple Daily (蘋果日報 6-7-2016):
Sheraton
(喜來登) 's
white shrimps contained bleaching agent
(漂白劑)，4
times higher than the legal standard，Ranina
(Spanner crabs
旭蟹) contained heavy medal Cadmium poisoning (重金屬镉) 14%
higher than the standard...;
◆ Apple Daily (蘋果日報 7-2-'13):
Taiwan's tourist hotels' food ingredients expired 2 years,
only 3 out of 21 hotels passed the security check and sanitary examination etc
conducting by Taiwan Administration, e.g., Shangri-La's (tnn) did not separate
their cutting tools for cooked foods and raw foods;
◆
FTV news, 5-18-2017: 13
ingredients / materials expired in a 5 star hotel in Taiwan; ◆ CTI
TV news (5-17-2017, 19:33): What can we eat in Taiwan? people are uneasy
for food here...
◆
United Daily, 11-26-2017: Only 2 pieces of Japanese sashimi (raw
fish) slice ( e.g., Tuna, Swordfish) exceeds safety standard,
because those kind of large-size deep sea fishes in Taiwan contain
"甲基汞" (CH3Hg, heavy-metal material, methyl mercury intoxication). ◆
CTV
5-8-2018 19:23 reported that some restaurants or business
may add something (non-nature
Astaxanthin) to farmed
salmon's feed for better look (orange color)
◆
TVBS 12-12-2013:
Nitrite，NO2− (
'亚硝酸盐' may cause cancer ) may be applied to raw tuna for bright red
color look - ref to https://news.tvbs.com.tw/life/513840
●Cheaper buffet restaurants are everywhere too,
but "Eastern Broadcasting Co., Ltd.，EBC
(東森) TV"
evening news (11-30-2015,
8:42pm): having
those fake /
restructured / glued meat
(beef, pork,
mutton, seafood:
abalone,calamari, etc)
is easy to get
food poisoning.
5 star hotel all you can eat buffet in
Taiwan
5 star hotel
Mandarin Oriental
Taipei (文華東方)
Hyatt
(君悅)
Sheraton
(喜來登)
Hi-Lai Harbour Taipei
(漢來)
饗食天堂
Sherwood
(西華)
Howard(福華)1F, 4F, 2F
Ambassador
Hotel(國賓)
Grand Taipei (圓山飯店)
Le Meridien,
(艾美)
Shangri-La's(香格里拉遠東)
Regent Taipei
all
you can eat buffet
1-29-2019
data:
weekdays buffet:
Beijing duck, US strip sirloin, braised US
beef in red wine sauce, pan-fried
salmon dill cream sauce, sweet sour
pork vegetables w dried scallop,
braised mushroom, wok fried prawn
soy sauce stewed sea bass, pan fried Radish cake XO sauce,US
beef Bolognaise Lasagna), deep fried dim
sum, Thai seafood fried rice w pineapple,
crab sweet corn soup, clam chowder, wined
chicken.
seafood bar: snow crab, brown crab, mussel,
sea shell, mussel, shrimp, etc
Sat. and Sun. 'semi'
all-you-can-eat buffet feast serves various
red crabs
(12-1-2018 data)
2-18-2019
updated
seafood bar added:
scallops, ,mussel,catfish,whelks,
... hot dish: wok
fried lily asparagus shrimps...
12-26-2018 data
Western signature dish:
roasted US beef rib eye chimichurri
(weekdays), Sirloin steak (weekends);
Western: sauteed pork knuckle
green pepper, Caribbean grilled
fish, char grull lamb chop rosemarry,
pork piccata,
5-6 kinds
Japanese raw fish, sea whelks, crab,
shrimp, a-bu-ri-su-shi ;
Chinese main: made to order mutton
soup (weekdays), made to order seafood
(fish, shell, squid or tiny oyster
蚵)soft rice;
Ningbo style braised eel fillet
yellow chive, braised sea cucumber,
Shanghai dumpling, roast duck, wok
fried chicken basil, braised pork
belly bamboo shout preserved bean
curd sauce, wok braised fish
preserved vegetable...;
8 Häagen-Dazs,
blue cheese, cheese cake, kiwi,
orange juice
3-4-2019 updated
hot dishes same, add clam chowder
soup, fruits add kiwi and small
apple
2-22-2019: updated
hot dish:
soak rice with abalone、braised
crabs w wine sauce、
grilled salmon w sea salt 、braised
fish vegetable Turmeric、beer
stewed pork、roast chicken w
Truffles,
nuts、pork spare rib w salt
pepper、stir-fried pork w black
pepper、rose ginger marinated
chicken、
5-6
raw fish slices : salmon, cobia, snapper,
swordfish,
etc (no
tuna 11-13-'18);
seafood bar : shrimp, small crab、、mussels
, squid;
NZ Natural ice cream 6 items,
Haagen-Dazs
4 items;
12-10-2018 updated /
Hot dishes:soak
rice with abalone..., ox-tongue
garlic butter, grilled salmon w sea
salt, spicy spare-ribs pork, stir
fried beef w water bamboo, green
onion, grilled pork w herb, crab &
onion w curry, braised pork w sweet
sour sauce, roast beef
...
11-13-2018 data / hot dishes:
braised pork rib w sweet olive,
fried crab w egg yolk, stir fried
vegetable, chicken w chili, stewed
fish (basa) w SiChun(四川) sauce or
steamed fresh-water fish w
lemon, wok fried
squid w celery, grilled salmon w sea
salt ...
updated 3-13-2019:11
different sashimi, but raw fish
about 7 :salmon、swordfish, tuna、snapper,
sand barracuda、Aishin、cuttlefish;
attractions:
hot: Kung
Pao frog legs, Si-Chuan spicy prawn,
Xi-Lin sausage, beef soup, Beijing
roast duck,
滷大腸、BBQ
chicken thigh, steamed sparerib w
Fermented black beans, steamed crab
shiao-Mai(蟹黃燒賣)、Fried
shrimps ball, Thai green curry w
duck, seared scallop,
German pork knuckle, US roast beef,
smoked salmon fried rice, abalone
soup, stir-fried cuttlefish w snap
bean,Japan deep fried shrimp;
8 items Häagen-Dazs
icecream.sorbet,
lots dissert, home-made yogurt
EBC
(東森/靖天育樂TV) 5-4-2018 3:00pm :
Hi-Lai serves
10
different kinds of Japanese raw fish slices,
and abalone;
Middle-east Blue Crab (奶油蒜香中東花蟹)、
Thai style spicy pepper
Pacific White
shrimps(泰式辛辣胡椒藍鑽蝦)
、
steak(
肋眼牛排)、
fried scallop(煎干貝)、
French style shoulder mutton(法式羊肩排)、
Sushi(
Japan's beef a-bu-ri-su-shi和牛握壽司)、
baked oyster(焗烤生蠔)
3
different items of raw fish slices
:
Dolphin fish (鬼頭刀), Nagao Coast
snapper(雞紅鯛), Bonito (鰹), from
Tai-Dong, Taiwan.
Germany cuisine festival ~
10-21-2018
(德國美食節
― 包括德國豬腳, 烤蜂蜜帶皮火腿, etc)
3-4-2019 updated:
lunch, mainly, serves
South-East Asian (Thai, Malaysia)
cuisine,
all are cooked foods, no raw fish
sushi those cuisine, dinner adds
shrimps (L) and duck, etc
afternoon tea buffet:
South-East Asian (Thai, Malaysia) cuisine,
cold seafood bar
: shrimps, crabs, etc,
hot dishes : Malaysia spicy
assorted seafood, Thai style steamed fish, fried mussels,
Singapore fried rice-noodle, vegetables, HK style disserts (4
different kinds);
small
sweet cake/dissert should be taken by working staff, not allowed to take
freely.
Haagen-Dazs
ice cream.
4th floor is American style buffet,
dinner's main are oven ribeye steak,
baked scallops, shrimps (明蝦), 3kinds
of raw fishes (price about :
mon~thur 950, 1050; 1050, 1150, from
2019)
2nd floor offers semi-buffet or
economic buffet
4
items of raw fish slices : : Tuna、Cobia、Salmon、竹莢魚or
swordfish，all are fresh cut upon
req. (it's fresh cut, but not too "free"
for foodie);
Häagen-Dazs and Cold Stoneice
cream, 8 flavors each brand
4 different kinds
(afternoon tea usually 2~3 kinds) of raw fish slices (生魚片) : BigHead Carp (鰱魚?),
Cobia(海儷), Swordfish(旗魚) and Great Amberjack(紅魽);
lunch and dinner attractions: N.Z.
roast beef，all-u-can-drink beer(生啤酒)，seafood
include shrimps and crabs, hot
dishes usually varies day by day
various hot dishes(蘿蔔絲餅(Crispy
pasrty with silky turnip )
、 燴香菇(braised mushroom)、
海鮮小干貝(braised small scallops), etc), more
items than those in Sheraton's afternoon tea buffet ;
But, LTN (自由時報)10-13-2018
gave bad score to their buffet - see
http://ent.ltn.com.tw/news
/breakingnews/2579148
raw fish slices
3~4 items;
emperor crabs soup out,
oyster & pork rib soup in
(原帝王蟹改香菇鮑魚雞湯現再改為牡蠣排骨湯);
oven ribeye steak(爐烤肋眼牛),
HK dim-sum(蒸籠港點)、grilled chicken(烤雞)、grilled
large shrimp (烤大蝦);
厚切赤味噌烤牛舌(grilled Miso thick-cut
beef tongue )、鳳梨蒲燒鰻(grilled eel w
pineapple)假日不定時提供;
脆皮烤乳豬(crispy bbq
suckling pig), 焗烤生蠔(baked
oyster), served irregularly
Seafood bar serves tiny snail, tiny octopus, mussel, shrimps, sushi,
and Japanese raw-fish slices : tuna/ swordfish, salmon,
Great Amberjack(紅魽)
;
Haagen-Dazs4
items;
India style cuisine 5 items;
Candonese style
Siu Mei / Barbecued cuisine (廣式燒臘)
, a few
items
;
data of Sept., 2018
3-12-2019 updated/
buffet's main attractions:seafood bar:
Three-spotted Crab (三點蟹)、Spanner/Crimson
(旭蟹)、sakura crab(櫻花蟹),
手卷bar: a-bu-ri-su-shi(握壽司)、炙燒、12~15
different sauces;
raw fish slices about 5~6 different
kinds;
signature hot food: oven roast beef(爐燒牛排),
Japanese wine (清酒) steamed clam;
CTV(中視)evening news, 12-18-2018: Regent's
breakfast buffet serves many Chinese style cuisine,
which was intro. by CNN;
Deputy mayor of Shanghai has
breakfast in Regent buffet restaurant, has dinner in Grand Taipei (圓山飯店)
price
lunch Mon ~Thurs NTD 1580,
weekend
lunch NTD 1980~3380, depends
which main dish you order;
02-27156888
weekdays 1480, Sat., Sun.1680, fri,
sat. 8:30 pm~10pm 30% off late bird
price
lunch NTD1090,
dinner1190
Taipei Dun-Hua(敦化),天母 branches:
850,600,980;
Others: lunch 730,
afternoon580,dinner 850;
reservation: 02-87736656
lunch NTD 798,
dinner 898
lunch
888,
Fri, Sat, Sun dinner 1288, Mon~
Thurs no dinner
afternoon tea buffet about 600;
Mon.~Thur.750, 800; Fri, Sat, Sun
800, 880
ps: Marriott
Hotel : SEMI buffet, need to order a
main dish, together with salad
& dissert bar, Sat. Sun. have
seafood bar, but number of seafood
are limited, weekdays NTD 980-2280,
weekends NTD1280-2880, ps2:
Palais
de Chin Hotel buffet
are semi too;
ps3: Westin Taipei's closed
in Dec. 2018; ps 4:
further details pls. ref. to the web-pages
Taiwan / 5 star buffet
brief of The Liberty Times (自由時報), 7-15-2016, 7-16-2016, 7-17-2016
W Hotel / Taipei
(寒舍艾美酒店)
Le Meridien / Taipei
Hyatt (君悅) / Taipei
(六福皇宮)
Westin / Taipei
Shangri La's Far Eastern
(遠東) / Taipei
Howard
4F / Taipei
Howard
1F / Taipei
(漢來海港)Grand Hi-Lai
/ Taipei
(晶華)
Regent / Taipei
(漢來海港)Grand Hi-Lai /
Kaohsiung
(漢來海港)Grand Hi-Lai /
Taichung
(國賓)Ambassador Hotel /
Kaohsiung
(饗食天堂) EatTogether / 台中店
Sheraton
/ Taipei
(欣葉) Shin Yeh / Taipei
oven roast pib-rib tender, various
countries flavors for more choices, but, pork
chops in Chinese medicine soup(藥燉排骨)
tasted not tender & juicy;
part of seafood open for freely taking ; cakes limited
Emperor crab、mussels(貽貝)、stone-crabs(石蟳)high
class and fresh, lots of Sashimi
raw fish slices served , various and fresh
seafood in mini-bar refrigerator, but
3-Spot-swimming-Crab
(三點蟹) not fresh;
various-items and fine quality desserts
roast duck、oil-chicken(油雞)、roast beef
steak and roast mutton are high quality ; Sashimi raw
fish slices、white shrimps(白蝦)、whelk meat
(香螺) are fresh ; crabs not too fresh ;
desserts are 5 star ranking
special made roast Ribeye Steak(乾式熟成肋眼牛排)smells
great;
frozen Boston lobster tasted bit too soft after being defrosted, more
than 50 hot dishes tasted great, lots of drinking options
India curry flavor is great, various meats
, HaiNan chicken tender, India spicy meat overdone, fresh
appetizer , high class vegetables
shrimp, scallop(扇貝)
fresh, advice starting from seafood; Grilled pork ribs(炭烤豬肋排)、ham(火腿) tender;
traditional style desserts
meat is not upto 5 star ranking, roast
duck not tender;
Haagen-Dazs ice cream without clear marks ;
white shrimps, (旭蟹)Spanner Crabs are fresh, 3 Spot
swimming Crab (三點蟹) not fresh，
large
shrimps, middle-sized Inshore squids(中捲) good
flavor(海味足)，fish soup taste good
flagship food is various
seafood:
4 kinds of fresh crabs, Assorted Sashimi(綜合生魚片)、smoked
shark(鯊魚煙)、meat roll with green onion (三星蔥肉捲)、roast pork rib
with plum sauce(蘇梅醬燒豬肋排) are good
angle red shrimps、epicure beef steak,
Grilled pork ribs(炭烤豬肋排)、freshly-made Frei(現烤布蕾)、brown-sugar
bee-nested cake(黑糖蜂巢蛋糕) good; Sashimi fresh, 3 kinds of crabs
flagship food is seafood: Spanner Crab、Mangrove
crab(旭蟹),
Mud crab (紅蟳)，lots ice at the bottom to keep them fresh; Hong Kong style pot boilcookcrab with XO sauce(港式XO蟹煲)、grilled
Ayu(烤香魚)taste good; grilled beef suppose US
Prime ramk, various desserts for selection
8~10 different kinds of
Sashimi raw fish slices，seafood are various kinds and fresh，cold
dishes and hot dishes both are excellent;
30+ different kinds of desserts
beef ribs(牛小排) great，，bratwurst
sausage(德式香腸)smells good ;
various cooking styles of seafood cuisine (料理手法多元), particularly
Pan-fried Sea Bass fillet(鐵板煎鱸魚排);
many items and high quality desserts
a
lot fresh and different items of cold plate seafood
Emperor crabs fresh ，short-necked clam(熱炒海瓜子)no
good;
pan fried chicken、oven roast beef(爐烤牛肉)、india flavor
curry clay oven rolls(印度咖哩燒餅)、 Vietnamese noodle
soup usually served with beef (pho bo) or chicken (pho ga 越南河粉)
Good;
most of cold-plate meats are Semifinished products;
desserts less items and bit too sweet
Sashimi raw fish
slices fresh ; not enough meats on the bar, but the balance of rare and
well done is controlled in right place ;
desserts are not open for freely taking
(須服務人員協取)
77038887
66228000
27201230
35183078
23763238
27002323
27002323
87736656
25238000
07-5555113
04-23105533
07-2115243
04-22585006
23211818
23713311
◎
How to eat
& worth-the-value??
1.Focus on seafood and roast beef/steak
2. Pay attention to: where those food came from, materials
ranking, current season fresh food?
how's the sauce, staff taking care the buffet bar often? room-lighting,
desserts kept in ice/cool box? too much
addictives or original flavor? etc.
Health info.
see full text
1. FTV (民視)
- July 5, 2012 : British latest studies found eating 60% full in each
meal can last your life for 20 years more.
2. TTV news 2-27-2015:
Buffet triple your stomach in size - A study found
65% buffet restaurant customers' gastric capacity increased from
about 800 c.c. up to 2000~3200 c.c., which can be main reason to
be a fatty.
○
pic.:
Formosa TV , 2-19-2018: Many
hotel buffets had bad records of
using
bad
food materials or ingredients before, even
now, some kind of official
certified marks may not be a
food-safety assurance in the
near future.
pic.:
United Daily (聯合報) 6-10-2017:
Gov. urged eating raw fish SOON !!
12 minutes after those raw fish
slices left cold-storage
(7c),
the number of Vibrio
Parahaemolyticus
(腸炎弧菌)
keeps growing double every 20
minutes
(倍數滋生)
or so,
in
normal temperature
(常溫
30c~),
...
ref to
https://udn.com/news/story/7186/2512857;TVBS,11-1-2016.
ps: Shangri La's Hotel in Taipei
Taiwan (6F, 8-28-2018)
expressed, their raw fish slices
leaving cold-storage will
display on serving plates for 45 minutes
for customer's taking. All
their raw seafood (Tuna,
Swordfish,
Great Amberjack(紅魽),
etc)
came from DonGun(東港), Taiwan,
some other 5 star hotels told me
their salmon were imported from
N. Europe. A top MD
of NTUH told me European raw
fishes are better.
pic.:
TVBS (Taiwan) 2-10-2018: experts
expressed their concern or scares of eating Basa
fish imported from Vietnam.
Some international experts like
Vancouver Aquarium's Ocean Wise doesn't
recommend consumers buy Basa,
some states of the US even
banned Basa, for using illegal
antibiotics, questioning polluted Mekong
river and the practices used to
farm Basa, those factors.
Some 5 star hotels in Taiwan
seemed love to serve
cheap-price Basa ―
however, they used English name Bassa or Balsa ( not fish
name ), instead of Basa, but, the
Chinese name used is Basa for
sure.
pic. left is a
hot dish served by a
Taipei's 5 star hotel buffet
restaurant, "Thailand
steamed Bassa fish"
(photo at 4-24-2018);
Pic. right
is another top hotel
Sheraton Taipei's buffet food -
"Balsa" fish
( photo in Nov. 2017 ).
United Daily News 1-20-2020: The death rate caused by traffic accidents in
Taiwan is 5 times that in Japan.
United Daily News 6-12-2019: 42 died in the high way in recent 2 years, do we
have enough lessons?
2 days ago 3 died in <阿囉哈> bus, the government reviews the same issue again and
again ...
(1)
Japan, USA, Canada ... issued warnings to their citizen-tourists to Taiwan
◎Foreign countries' warning messages
Bad road designs, vehicles and motorcycle all mix on the road ...
Japan, the US, Canada issued warnings to their citizens again and
again, be cautious of transportation safety while staying in
Taiwan.
◎ Canada government also issued warning messages,
like bad drivers, bad road
condition, pedestrians not in orders, roads in mountains lack of
maintenance, riding motorcycle is dangerous ...
◎Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association's warnings :( Japanese version as pic. left) as below:
●
Taiwan has
"bus
exclusive lane"！
No other vehicles are allowed to
drive there.
●
Traffic control for
holidays or some special time
. Only taxi and
tourist-bus are allowed to enter
some tourism areas！
● In single-lane
drive-way without speed-limit
sign you should drive within 40km/h，double
(or more) lane driveway: 50km/h！
●
Out rushed
the car, particularly
motorcycles is possible to
encounter. Some
vehicles changing lane at will
is possible to encounter.
●
On some roads without traffic
signs, be aware of pedestrians jaywalking
at will and cars out-rush at will
！
●
Keep safety distance,
avoid an emergency brake ,
Beware of moving vehicles. Using hazard warning lamp in case of traffic
jam ahead.
Clear parking move.
●
On high-way, be aware of
vehicles violating of safety distance and changing lanes at will.
pic. from website of
Japan-Taiwan Exchange
Association
台灣交通太可怕 日本美國加拿大各國早示警
(2)
Fatal
train
accidents
ref. to
<New York Times>:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/world/asia/taiwan-train-crash.html
● 2018 :
Taiwan Train Accident in biggest curve in
Taiwan Kills at Least 18 and Injures about 187 Others( ps: CTV (中視新聞)
19:45pm, 10-22-2018, Prosecutor: over-speed might be the cause
of accident, other suspicious points under investigation
include "Automatic Train Protection (ATP)" being turned off,
abnormal track, etc)
United
Daily News, 12-4-2018, editorial : Reviewing the train
accident is a shit, find out the truth? or cover the truth ?
Taiwan's investigations of disaster (except aviation) events
have been always distorted, once judiciary and control power are
involved, the clarification goes afar ...
("普悠瑪檢討 簡直敷衍了事"
"了解真相 還是掩蓋真相"，
台灣災害調查情境，一直處於扭曲局面，除飛航事件之外，
一旦司法權刑事、
監察權行政介入，
純粹釐清真相即遙不可及) ... (brief)
● 2011:
at least six people were killed and more
than 50 others injured after a tree collapsed into the path of a
tourist train also serving Ali Mountain.
● 2003:
last crash of a similar scale taking
place in 2003, when a train serving the mountain tourist
destination of Ali Mountain derailed, killing 17 people and
injuring 156 others.
● 1981:
a collision in Miaoli County, in the island’s
northwest, killed 31 people
Apple Daily, 10-29-2018: Taiwan's train
太魯閣號 brake acting up is still running on the railway
United Daily, 10-29-2018, headline news: Taiwan president: Find
out systematic problem !
●
(3)
Tourist-bus accidents again and again in Taiwan ― The United Daily (2-15-2017, front-page):
So many self-criticisms in the past never stop next tragedy !
●
2017 tour bus accidents
◆
The SUN, BBC (UK)
2-13-2017: "BUS CRASH HORROR!" , Taiwan's tour bus "has come under fire
in recent months over safety standards"...;
◆ TTV HD (14:21pm 2-14-2017), CCTV(China):
Taiwan laws in vain, lax management (administration)
makes disasters. ◆
Apple Daily, Editorial (2-15-2017): Such
a high casualty rate most likely ranks No.1 among all civilized states in the
world, public opinions and official blames are useless at all, because they saw
right through the government, called government's bluff ...
◆tv.ifeng凤凰视频
"The most miserable
bus accident ( at least 33 dead ) in Taiwan history"； ◆
Taiwan's tour-bus problems:
Taiwan
travel
(1) Drivers overwork/overtime
― many work longer than the time-limits in the US (California
10 hrs per day) ,Euro. , Japan, Thailand, etc
.
(2)
The number of tour-buses
in Taiwan is about 17000. More than 90% (or almost
all) tour buses
are self-assembly vehicles. Taiwan lacks of
heavy industry's broad and firm base, travel business can't afford a
bus (body plus chassis)
made in Europe...
(3) Most tour buses are so-called fake or "pseudo"
double-decker bus ―
assembling bus-body made in Taiwan with Western biaxialchassis
instead of high safety specification triaxial
automobile chassis, this may result in high
center of gravity
and accidents.
(4) Most tour-bus
are
top-heavy & bottom-light, unbalanced
architecture
― narrow vehicle width/length
( max 2.49 m, not Euro. standard 2.55m) being assembled with imported Euro. chassis.
(5) All Taiwanese self-assembly buses have never done rollover test.
Bus structure strength is not good enough ― the upper limits for gross
weight of automobile chassis is less than Euro. and American specification.
The related laws have never been amended for 30 years.
(6) Importing automobile chassis using for low power, commuting local Express in
Europe to make tour bus - this results in potential risk .
(7) not enough early warning
systems for those dangerous sections of highway. Many accidents
occurred on that curve where
"bus-crash-horror" happened at 2-13-2017.
(8) Lax or improper management/admin. for tour bus, for drivers
qualification for reg. certificate, and for driver's training mechanism.
(9) Vehicle examination or inspection not able to be earnestly implemented.
(10) About 70% tour-bus drivers illegally/trickly reg. in bus companies (靠行) to
save cost, it is
a long-time corruption or
malpractice, some drivers are temporary
substitutes or touters.
(11) The government usually has not seriously put administrative law and regulation for
bus safety into practice. Old bus and overwork drivers are
travel agencies' two best (or only) ways to earn good benefit.
(China Times Weekly no.2035)
(12) Many tour buses don't have safety-belt, buckle-up is not the
law, some poor-condition chairs are fixed by iron-strings. Besides, tourists
are not used to fasten safety belt. /
above brief Apple Daily, Liberty Times, China Times, UDN, Next
magazine, Want Daily, ERA TV news, etc 2-15 ~ 2-17-2017
●
2016 tour bus accidents
●
Chinese official news (People Daily's Global Times 環球時報 7-19-2016 editorial) : Taiwan's tourism
system are flawed, how can they goof off year after
year?? tourists are gambling their lives if Taiwan still won't take any step to change
this ...
●
People's Daily (China) editorial
(8-4-2016): Chinese tourists not dare to visit Taiwan in the future
without safety assurance / Taiwan tour disasters are sort of
man-made disasters ,
Taiwan tourism's major problems
include loopholes in
law and regulation、careless
mistakes in administration 、or
not-good-enough system of organization, othermalpractices are traveling load-bearing capacity (旅遊承載能力)、road-traffic
safety 、aviation
safety、road maintenance 、safety
standard for tour bus、Modified
Automobiles/Fix-up tour bus、Low-end
tour groups …
traveling accidents happening again and again open
Pandora's box, too many tourist victims reveal Taiwan tourism's problems, Taiwan
authority tried to do something (亡羊補牢)
each time a tragic accident occurred, but it seemed late and same kind of
tragedies never cease.
(brief)
● Apple Daily
(7-20-2016) : Since Taiwan opened to Chinese tourists in 2008, in total 90 Chinese tourists
died, 390 injured, 62%
dead/injury was caused by tour bus; The Guardian (UK)
7-19-2016: Taiwan tourist bus fire kills all (Chinese tourists ) on board...
Apple Daily (7-20-2016 head-page) : "The most miserable & tragic bus accident in Taiwan history"；
3 major problems in tour bus:
Taiwan
travel
(1) bus structure / United
Daily (7-20-2016): Taiwan's tour bus is vulnerable because of assembling Taiwan's bus-body with
imported chassis ; Hitravel.tv (寰宇新聞二台,
7-19-2016 8:16pm): Taiwan's assembled buses are top-heavy &
unbalanced in architectures, bus becomes weak tofu while encountering traffic
accident. TVBS : Taiwan tour bus bad welding ... details ref
to http://news.tvbs.com.tw/entry/319226;
(2) wires / PTS (公視) 7-20-2016: too complicated electric wires for
entertainment program, refrigerator, etc caused fire.
(3) dead lock / Liberty Times (7-21-2016
A3): More than 90% of tour bus install a dormant/secret lock in an emergency EXIT door
and
may block tourists escaping fire...
How to survive in Taiwan's bus fire:
Taiwan travel
★
Apple Daily (7-20-2016): Min-Chuan Univ. professor: In Taiwan's tour bus, the
best seat is behind the driver, and avoid the last few rows.
★ CTS(7-24-2016):
window breaker should be used on emergency EXIT windows (The Liberty Times
7-2016 : Legislator tests it may take 1 or even 3 minutes, depending your health
status ...), not good on others... it takes precious time...
★
Next Magazine
(7-28-2016):
When bus fires, lower your body, cover your nose and mouth, no
jostling or elbowing or losing your head out, go to the nearest
emergency EXIT, window breaker should be used
on nearest emergency window, knock 4 corners, then smash it by your feet or a
fire-extinguisher, then escape after the whole glass piece falling down...
★ UDN on-lines
(7-21-2016): Leader of Taiwan Transportation Dept. expressed that In this year all tour buses need to keep maintenance records
on hand for
checking.
●The China Times
(12-16-2015）:The PRC government (State Council Office for Taiwan
Affairs) concerned and urged Taiwan to take traffic accidentsfrequently happened to Chinese tourists groups seriously.
(車禍頻傳國台辦促台重視) The UDN video (2-3-2016): Chinese tourists groups traffic
accidents in HuaLien, 18 persons injured.
●The China Times
(3-3-2016）editorial:
suggest using small or middle sized tour bus
withcarbon fiber top/roof for safety for
trips to HuaLien.
●
201x tour bus accidents
●
Serious accident in 2010
-
a tour bus fell into the sea in HuaLien, all
tourists on board were killed. (China Times, 7-20-2016 : a horrible
coincidence, the number of death in 2010's bus accident is same as that in 2016 )
● ●
Others pls ref to Ps18
(4) Taiwan's aviation safety - MSN, Reuters,
EuroNews, Mirro(UK), NewsWeek, CNN, etc (2-4-2015) :"Taiwan has had a
poor
aviation safety record in recent years" , full text pls.
click...
Taiwan's aviation
safety
●
◎
ps Taiwan's train and high-speed train -
comparatively safe.
◆
Although Rough Guides (UK, 2017) reported "High-speed trains
will whizz you out of cities to steamy forests and jagged mountains",
however, tourists still need to take vehicle into the mountains/forest, in
most cases.
Telegraph (1-25-2017)
"The 50 greatest train journeys on Earth" introduced
the
excellent and frequently scenic railway network to visit Neiwan, for traditional Hakka cuisine, and Tainan,
the Alishan (A-Li
)
Mountain Railway, was built to extract logs from the
forest but now provides access to a magnificent vantage
point for sunrise.
◆
Wikipedia:
3-1-2003 A-Li forest railway train accident, the biggest
ever disaster - 17 death, 205 wounded/injured。
Baidu: 4-27-2011 A-Li forest train accident again, Taiwan
media again questioned the safety of this train. Apple Daily (蘋果日報
4-28-2011): A-Li-Shan forest train (350 Chinese tourists loaded) accident caused
5 death, 107 injured/wounded.
★
★◎
●
PIC:
moving coffins and flying coffin
/ 2010-2017
2-4-2017 tour-bus traffic
accident again in Kaohsiung
Taiwan - 21 tourists are
injured
◎
pic. left: Taiwanese massage / Zola Zu's cartoon, exhibited in Japan, Israel,
and Taiwan (originally printed in the China Times)
◎
pic. right:
hidden erotic
deals in massage
parlors / Zola Zu's
cartoon applying the foot-massage sign
◎
massages
The
China Times (1.19.2014) : The massage became
most popular business in Taiwan, opening more and more
in recent years since Taiwan's bad economic. Apple Daily news (Dec. 25, 2014) reported
a scholar's
study ―
the reason that barber shops and massage parlors in
Taiwan offer "something additional" is Taiwanese
sexual repression and men's "needs"/hormones
(ps: many Taiwanese customers do it just for "entertainment"
and casual fun-fun -
ref. to Next
magazine 2015, No.722 ). Most masseuse in Thai
massage parlors are mainland Chinese women. If Taiwan's
Thai massage parlors all get together in one street,
that'll be a "China Town" in Taiwan
―
definitely the most special, largest China Town on this planet. Wikipedia's
interWiki WikiSexGuide
(Mar. 2015)
:" there are Thai massage places
all over Taipei and most places you have a good chance
to find extra services".
Some
massage houses are so popular (e.g., Foot-Massage Spa Villa) that
seems customers flock to it, you may need a
reservation in advance (just like Michelin one star
restaurants in New York ), otherwise will be in a
queue for service. Taiwan's
media equated Taiwanese (foot) massage with National
Palace Museum (exhibiting ancient China's treasures) and
reported they are Taiwan's major attractions to int'l tourists,
therefore, "Taiwanese massage" certainly needs to be
explored and studied.
Having
massage in Taiwan, you should be cautious of 2 things :
●
United Daily
News (8-23-2018) reported that any Taiwanese massager
without MD license declares massage as therapy or has curative effect
(e.g., lymphatic detoxification, cure plantar fasciitis,
pathological massage) will get penalty fine.
EBC TV (東森電視,
靖天育樂,
9-30-2018, "Hello Doctor"): There's one case scraping (刮痧) improperly caused
paraplegic problems ...... massaging improperly
may cause LDH, Erectile dysfunction, Gatism,
stroke....... Taipei City
Hospital (Renai branch) 's M.D. in 康健 Magazine (12-4-2017) said the main
difference between massage-naprapathy in medical clinic and massage in massage
shops is that the clinic will find out the pathogeny (cause of disease) and give
right treatments. CTS 5-4-2018 reported a
Taiwanese people with
hyperglycemia/hyperlipidemia/ hypertension almost die
for having massage in Taiwan.
●
BBC 12-13-2019:
The back-cracking Thailand massage has
been added to intangible cultural heritage list by
UNESCO,
however,
Thai massage changed its form in Taiwan.
Mirror (鏡周刊) 5-14-2019:
Recently, lots of East-South Asian young girls entered
Taiwan to be prostitutes ... you may see them in
Thai. massage parlors, as well as in some traditional
massage houses. Some underworld (gangsters) own
both Thai. massage (erotic) and traditional massage
business which may not be "clean" as well. ○
Yahoo headline 11-27-2017 ( and Chicago Tribune, CNN,
USA Today, etc) : Massage Envy,
a behemoth in massage therapy, is
facing hundreds of sexual assault allegations, because
massage has "built-in
risk" , "just
like there was opportunity in the priesthood, there's
opportunity in the massage room... your guard is down
completely".
Washington Post (11-27-2017): "ONE incident is too
many". Mirror Media of Taiwan reported
at 3-30-2018 that Japan's China massage shops,
particularly in "新橋站" (west exit of New Bridge station),
offer sexual servicesps1 and free-trials such as 'hands down to the lower part of
body' as WP reported occurred
in some Taiwanese parlors too.
CTV(中視)、CTS(華視新聞)
TV News at 9-3-2019:
a girl college
student was separated her legs and was sexual
harassed while having massage in
tourist-site Xi-Mun-Din
area, TVBS News reported a similar case, suspiciously, was
happened
in the
famous brand
『李炳輝第二代』("疑爆猥褻性侵"
for details -
https://news.tvbs.com.tw/local/353431).
Apple Daily (蘋果日報) 12-16-2019
: a massager in Xi-Min-Din
(西門町) foot massage shop did "kiss" "outrageously" a lady
customer's private part when she was sleepy, the high
court can't give him heavy penalty because of lacking
evidences。CTV (中視新聞)
evening news, 5-19-2017, 19:07: a female customer was
hurt and was drew blood by a massager's "needle"
.
The Liberty Times (1-8-2016),
a massager in a popular night market (RaoHe Street) did
sexual assault (by fingers, and kissing) to a cute house
wife...
Hence,
please
keep in mind to select 5 star hotels or
best-reputation massage shops for your perfect safety,
the popular or crowded ones may not be clean ones.
Besides, having body massage in a private room is much
more risky than foot massage in an open space.
those Taiwanese male aged
above 20
(2.33 million men per yr.
,ps1)
The annual
value of production of Taiwan's
sex industry's is at least USD
200 million.
Tai-Nan 2 (aged
60), Tao-Yuan 10, I-Lan 10, Pon-Hwu 6.
A well-known politician Wu B.S. (吳伯雄) has a widely-known
saying: Every Taiwanese, except the
police,
knows illegal Casino houses are everywhere in Taiwan.
Taiwan's prostitution situation is about the same as
Taiwan Casino's. (Police announced at 5-5-2015
"completely root out sex business" (according
to The
China Times, 5-5-2015
標題"...全面掃除色情"),
eventually, only 3 cases in massage parlors got caught,
according to official report by Taiwan's Central News Agency,
5-10-2015 )
According to The United Daily News (7.27.2014) and Apple
Daily News (4.12.2014), most massage parlors in Taipei
(Taiwan capital) involve
or actually run porn business. Prostitution
business in Taiwan
are,
firstly, Thai massage parlors
(「掛羊頭賣狗肉」的按摩店(或養生館)), second, call-girls
controlled by agents, thirdly, individual working studio
or so-called one-woman
brothel
(「一樓一鳳」). The United Daily
(8-19-2015): The area with highest density of night
clubs ("酒店") / specialized profession ("特種行業",a
beautified term of sex related business including
massage parlors ) in Taipei city locates LinSen N.
Rd. stretching from JinZhou street to
ChangChun Rd.,
this erotic-landmark area is "a city
never sleeps". EBC evening news
3-4-2018 8pm: about 30 night clubs in ChungShen District
- LinSen N. Rd, lots of disorders happened in this area.
Taiwan's phony crack down on
prostitution /English version.
◎
pic. : Taiwan's travel advertisement in middle
East (2016), a phony or inappropriate piece?
Critiques:
1) Even massage
parlors in Taipei's 5 star hotels are not
greenish at all, let alone
enjoying being purified by the
forest's unpolluted atmosphere,
besides,
u probably won't see
Buda decorations appeared in many Western
hotels.
2)
If
"full if green" functions analogical juxtaposition as
adjective/adverb, it's an ad for massage itself
(not exactly for TW), tourists' 1st choice will
be leading brands (instead of
Taiwan) in massage field. Most Taiwanese
massage parlors got tiny & crowded space, some
basement smell ...
not know how often they clean
the filter of air condition?
3) probably not too easy to do "Buddhist meditation"
there because next room may be noisy.
more...
Pic. left :
body massage (Dragon-phoenix
Town Thai Parlor)
ads. are everywhere in Taipei;
many Vietnamese, Communist
Chinese girls/women entered this
market
Pic. right:
foot massage - Hua-Shi Street
hard working girls / masseuse
concentrated on customers' feet
6.
Sight-seeing in Taiwan
Taiwan ads bet on attracting
small-eaters, instead of sightseers.
◎ pic: 228
Peace Monument ―
was not best award winner in
the int'l monument design contest, but
was selected as a sign for that
massacre event.
◎ pic: Taiwanese
Presidential Office Building
―
this original Japanese governor
office which was
a symbol of
Japanese power's colonial
domination
sparked a controversy
about moving to new place for
transitional justice.
Taipei mayor Ko also stated
it's
really weird !
◎
pic: Taiwanese government -
Control Yuan, functioning as
high-ranking officials
supervisor
, but it together with
Legislator Yuan
(like
Congressmen house) were
criticized as "prostitutes
house" by media.
◎
World Economic Forum (WEF) <Travel
and tourism competitiveness report>(released at 4-6-2017)
shows,
Taiwan's
most important indexes for
promoting tourism, like "Attractiveness
of Natural Assets" (parks, beaches,
mountains, wildlife, etc)
ranks world No.87, "Natural Resources"
ranks No.55. In
2015's report
,
Taiwan's
"Prioritization of Travel & Tourism"
was ranked world No.82, "Quality of
Natural Environment" No.75,
"Natural Resource" No.62.
Taipei City mayor Dr. Ko pointed out
during a trip to Japan that Taipei is
short of aesthetic elements or sense of
beauty
(欠缺城市美學/美感).
/ The China Times 1-26-2016.
TVBS (9-15-2015)
: Unlike China, Taiwan has no spot of
attraction (「亮點」).
Apple Daily's Next
magazine (12-16-2015) reported that
government's statistics found the No.1
attraction tourists visited is night
markets, instead of cultural or heritage
sites or any national beauty. The cover page of red
China's New Weekly (新周刊, 2012) wrote "The best
attraction of Taiwan is the people" (ps:◆ Human rights in Taiwan ),
mainland Chinese newspaper in early days
mentioned Taiwan has no good view. (台灣景觀不「亮」) Taiwan's latest tourism commercial
being broadcasted in Japan bets on
Taiwanese foods, you only see
the Japanese star (木村拓哉 Kimura Takuya)
keeps eating Taiwanese small eats and
shaved ice with mango, nothing about
sightseeing - this supports an
argument, Taiwan has no sight of
attractions, Taiwan has little choice but to
attract small eaters instead of
sightseers.
Professors in Tourism like to teach a
case study
―
the TV drama "Grandpas Over
Flowers"(花樣爺爺) let Korean see Taiwan's
beauty from certain angle and increases
the number of Korean tourists by 50%
(compared to that of previous year).
But some mainland Chinese college
students also complained in TV
talk-shows that Taipei does not looks
like those exterior/scenes in TV soap
operas they saw before coming Taiwan.
Taiwan,
indeed looks much worse than Niagara Falls or
Grand Canyon in the US,
mountain
view in Swiss, or poetic & romantic
Paris in France, ancient city Roma in
Italia
......
In spite of so many
critiques, Business Insider (6-2015)
still introduced some places for
tourists, anyway:
◎ Hehuan Mountain and Ali Mountain are two top-rated scenic spots on TripAdvisor.
(阿里山等)
◎ Sun Moon Lake(日月潭)
◎ Kenting National Park(墾丁).
9 nationall. parks, which make up 8.6% of its land. Taroko National Gorge
(太魯閣) alone is worth spending at least two days hiking its
numerous scenic trails.
◎ hot springs Beitou
outside of Taipei, and Jiaoxi in Yilan (北投宜蘭等溫泉)
Taiwan is a free country, however, almost
all architectures are not free-style
designs or boundless creativity, they are just
real estates or
huge money properties.
You won't see something like
MIT's CSAIL, or Las Vegas Lou Ruvo
Center.
Forbes (3-5-2017) "3 Things
Chinese Tourists Are Surprised To Find
When They Travel Abroad To Taiwan"
: "It’s not very modern
!", " the wealth wasn’t
invested in architecture. So the cities
are full of decayed apartment blocks....
the housing isn’t as good.”.
The Liberty Times and the China Times
(3-10-2017) : local scholars described
Taiwan as "ugly cities".
◎
Taipei 101 tower /
Taiwan's pride and landmark, Taipei 101
tower, was
ranking world No.1 highest construction cost (about NT55.8 billion)
business/office building by Global Property Guide on April 26, 2011.
But
The
Huffington Post on
9-17-2012
comments
Taipei 101 tower as one of "Ugly Skyscrapers around the world".
Its aesthetics elements (like gradation,
repetition, texture, shape, rhythm, etc)
are obviously much worse than Malaysia's
twin towers or Shanghai's Grand Hyatt. Anyway, Taipei 101
boasts the world's fastest elevator.
◎
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (National Father) Memorial Hall in Taiwan
/ it dramatically enlarges Chinese-culture roof, but cancels
"dougong" or brackets, to show elegant,
mild personality, which is totally
different from, or even opposite the
icon of communist China
―― China's
Pavilion in EXPO Shanghai, namely "Oriental
Crown"
――
dramatically increase
huge number of "dougong" or brackets, layer upon layers,
but without roof at all.
click for China Pavilion in EXPO
Shanghai ...details
◎
Chiang Kai-shek
Memorial Hall (October 31,
1887 ~ 1975 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek
) /
Former
president Chiang was China's leader to
fight against Japan's invasion during
WWII
(ref. to <Economist>,
8-15-2015
).
◎
228
Peace Mem.
Park / for victims in 228
Incident/political event, one of
the most important events in
Taiwan's modern history, the
massacre marked the
beginning of the Kuomintang's (KMT) White Terror period in
Taiwan...
◎
Nation's Father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen Mem. Hall (Taiwan)
◎
China's icon - China
Pavilion in EXPO Shanghai, namely,
Oriental Crown
(China)
◎
pic:
Chiang Kai-shek
Memorial Hall
―
pls. note the name on the mem. gateway
"Great Kai-shek (大中至正)" had
already been rewritten as
"Square of Freedom".
◎
pic:
The personality of
Sun Yat-sen Mem. Hall
reflecting introversive,
calmness-loving tradition,
opposites that of communist China's icon,
Oriental Crown
(The China Pavilion at EXPO)
―
an
aggressive and domineering
look.
ps: only 3
authentic calligraphy works by
Dr. Sun were collected in the
hall.
◎
◎◎
8. Expenses
According to
2015 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness
Report,
Taiwan's
"hotel price index"
ranks world No. 82, "Purchasing power parity"
ranks world No. 64,
"price
competitiveness" ranks No. 38.
(No.1. Iran, No.2. Egypt, 3. Indonesia)
UK's
Economist Intelligence Unit -
Liveability Country Level Index (2015),
evaluates "Cost of Living" of Taipei as
"72" (scores 1~131, "1" means the
cheapest, e.g., Mexico City is "73")。
In Swiss UBS's
"most expensive cities" report, Taipei's
commodity price
was ranked No. 26 - but in
last time's report Taipei's ranking was No. 42.
FOX news web-site (USA) at Nov. 27, 2011
selected Taipei as one of ten "Top
Budget Travel Destinations for 2012" (the
list includes Egypt,
San Diego, Canada, Belize, San Antonio,
Poland, Taipei, Kansas city, Athens, etc
)for
hotel price
NT4380, the best time to visit
Taipei is Oct. and Nov. for better
climate .
But, latest information (The China
Times, 9-14-2015) shows the average
price of 5 star hotels for Taiwanese
tourists is NT dollars10494 (more than
double of FOX news reported price),
price of 4 star hotels is NT5591, some
Taiwanese hence prefer to travel in
Japan for cheaper expenses.
☉
PS: <Michelin Guide> of March
2018 recommends
hotels (25 in total)
Rankings (5 : top)
Hotels
Red - 5
Mandarin Oriental, Taipei
Black - 5
Shangri-La's Far Eastern, Taipei
Red - 4
Grand Mayfull Hotel Taipei,
The Okura Prestige Taipei
Black - 4
Hyatt Taipei, Courtyard by
Marriott,
Le Meridien, Sheraton,
Sherwood, Regent Formosa, W
hotel.
Black - 3
誠品行旅, 寒舍艾麗, 日勝生加賀屋,
君品(Palais
de Chin Hotel),
老爺, 萬豪
Red - 2
S Hotel, 三二行館
Black - 2
怡亨, 慶城商旅, 慕軒,
美麗信花園
Black - 1
home hotel信義, home hotel大安
source : UDN, 3-23-2018
◎◎
◎
9.
Arts & cultural creativity ―― National Palace Museum (故宮)
UK's Telegraph.co at 3-13-2015 :
"Curiously,
one of the world’s greatest collections
of Chinese antiquities is not in China –
but across the Strait in Taiwan.".
(ps: in Taiwan's National Palace Museum (故宮),
but foreigners most likely can't see the
value of those Chinese calligraphic
works)
SHU professor
(陳家瑜)
in Tourism expressed the US and Korea attract tourists by
their culture and creativity being
exported to the whole world via
movies and television, etc.
A paper
"The study of the influence of Mainland tourists on Taiwan
tourism industry"
by Ming Chuan University
(郭慶萍, 駱芬美教授):
"as the former president of Taiwan
Tourism Association, Mr. Yen, said
“culture is absolute a added-value
critical in Taiwan Tourism industry”",
Taiwan's cultures promote tourism
sustainability.
Taiwan's
national palace museum is a place being
worthy of visiting,
world largest collection
of ancient
Chinese arts ―
treasures in painting,
calligraphy, statuary, ceramics,
bronzes, jade, laquerware, etc,
are on rotation to
be exhibited, so, if tourists love
to see all of them, need to come Taiwan
many times. The China Times
(3-17-2016): argues about who owns NPM's
treasures? KMT? ROC Taiwan? or China?
leader of NPM expressed she won't hand
it in to China ...
Taiwanese
government named those 5000 years
treasures as
"Chinese Creativity",
but, today's
Taiwanese creativity is weak and
poor, ...
According to latest statistics till
Aug., '15, the number of tourists
visiting NPM fell down 220 thousands
compared to that in the same time of
last year. Likely it's
because younger or aged 30-39 tourists
(major part of visitors - according to
papers) are not too interested in old
stuffs.
◎◎
<NPM (故宮)>
creative products
comments
ps
Alessi "the Chin Family"
(1) <NPM>
cooperates with Japan, Italy, hence, NPM's products are not purely
Taiwanese or Chinese flavor.
(2) Mr. Chin got slant eye (or "raising eyebrows"), it's western view-point, the Oriental usually
don't draw that way.
How about
"Chinese Creativity" by today's Taiwanese ??
"Jadeite
Cabbage" tray-pillow for
chop-sticks to rest on
(「翡玉白菜」筷架)
(1) most products directly use antique-art shape.
(2) At least 20 years ago, various assorted dedicated vegetables and fruits glass chopsticks tray-pillow already
were made-in-Japan (best-sellers too) .
Don Dynasty ladies
picture slippers
(唐朝仕女拖鞋)
just directly applied antique pictures on products.
<NPM>
should designs Chinese treasures, and makes witty, humorous artworks to represent
Taiwan's modern arts. Western tourists suppose like to buy souvenir
with Chinese culture & flavor created by ourselves. "Mercenaries" cannot represent
Taiwan to Olympics.
◎
Critiques
Taiwan's creativity? a fly in
each urinals
― you also can see
dark-green-fly
prt.-drawings in
Swiss toilets everywhere, every
man hates that dirty insect in
white environment, so aimed and
shoot (piss) it; but Taiwan's
fly is a cute, colorful scarab
beetle ......
Taiwan
needs boundless creativity and vivid imagination
( ＜故宮＞的文化創意商品 簡評
........「西方眼中的東方鳳眼」
)
printed in the United Daily News,
2008,
by Zola Zu, FECO president Taiwan
Ancient Chinese ladies picture printed in slippers or cups,
in there see no clever idea, those are just avg.
cartoon image simplifying old painting.
◎ ◎◎
10.
Best-Buy
Shopping:
malls / outlet
― world best
brand clothes in Taiwan .
◎
Dept Stores/
Malls
●
At end of 2016,
suspiciously contaminated foodstuffs from Japan Fukushima Nuclear
Accident area being already found in a number of major markets
and Dept. Stores ( SOGO, Breeze, Taipei 101 Jasons, etc ) angers
Taiwanese people, hence, the premier of Taiwan government announced
there's no time-table to lift the ban on foods from Japan's nuclear
accident area (福島、茨城、群馬、櫪木、千葉5縣).
● According to
2015 Travel &
Tourism Competitiveness Report,
Taiwan's Purchasing power parity index
was ranked world No. 64, however,
in contrast with large department stores or malls, outlet stores in Taiwan are
normally quite popular.
● Department stores or malls are
comparatively 'empty' (except small-eat street, supermarket, and in
those anniversary-discount days), some widely known department stores
failed to pass security check again and again, e.g., Breeze Center
was reported by media in recent years - United Daily (聯合報)11-13-2015、Epoch
Times (大紀元) 10-09-2013、11-21-2013、10-15-2012...;
besides, SOGO(天母branch)
failed in public safety check - Liberty Times, United Daily, China
Times...10-7-'11.
●
Not all major dept. store's customer
services are very good, e.g.,
SOGO Taipei took more than one month to
reply customer's
unbiased
email.
(12-19-2016).
◎
Outlet stores:
◎
1-21-2017, <the Liberty Times, Weekender 自由時報> /
Happy Shopping in outlet malls !
2-9-2017,
<China Times Weekly 時報周刊 >
Out Let
contact
Brands - attractions
address / location
麗寶台中 outlet mall
04-3702-2888
●
Alessi, ABC-mart, Levis,
Citizen, "鬼洗", etc, in
total 120 brands
●
Exclusive brands: sapporo
drug, Japanese Puding
北海道天使布丁、"北海道新發現"、及Japanese
noodle 北海道拉麵"次郎長"、"虎鐵", etc
Taichung 后里福容路201
華泰名品城Gloria outlet (US style)
03-273-8666
Totally 167 brands,
Exclusive 20 brands,
Jack & Jones, Palladium, Lanvin,
Level 6ix, Maison Promax, "野獸國",
Guess, Lock&Lock, etc
Coach, Roots, North face, Prada,
Gucci, 150 brands
TaiChung City 自由路二段94
高雄義大
07-656-8100
All Saints, Michael Kors,
Desigual, top-brands, totally
700 brands
Kaohsiung Cityb學府路1段12
Aug. 5, 2015, <the China Times> /
newly-open outlet malls
Gloria outlets (華泰名品城) - TaoYuan
city : about 260 brands, open in Q4 2015
三井 outlet park - New Taipei City : about
200 brands, open in Q1 2016
麗寶台中 outlet mall - Tai-Chung City: about
104 brands, open in Q3 2016
Nov. 3, 2013, <United Daily News>
Taipei Leeco outlet , 2 branches (Neihu, 公館): (02) 8792-6668,
Kaohsiung outlet (義大) : (07)656-8100, largest outlet in Taiwan.
Gloria outlet : will be open expected end of 2014.
林口中商36 (invested by Japanese 三井): open in 2017 expected.
蘭城新月: largest one in Eastern taiwan.
Taichung outlet (日曜) : (04)3611-2366, The only outlet in middle
Taiwan.
◎ Apple Daily News (May 6, 2012):
headline ― Outlet is 3 times popular than before.
◎ TVBS news CH55 (13:01pm, May 6, 2012): Taipei
outlet 10% up, EeLan outlet 20% up.
(1) There was a "out-let" store street in Tian-Mum : Section 6,
Chung San North Road (adjacent to Tian-Mum Circle). Till now
many out-let stores have already moved out because the house-rent rose in recent years, some
stores remained the same place still offers economic price, i.e., about NT 700 for
Ralph Lauran POLO long-sleeve shirt.
(2) A large out-let building Leeco (about 160 brands) located in Nae Hu.
Nautica : phone (02) 8792-6668
Ralph Lauran POLO : 8791-3721, 2719-1838 (head-quarter),
(3) EDA (義大) Outlet Mall (tel: 07-657-7077) in Kaohsiung city,
includes about 300 brands, like Gucci, YSL, Ralph Lauren, etc
(4) A XL-sized clothes store at 81, Sec. 2, JinShan South Road,
which is adjacent to the Gas station, near Tamkang
University, downtown campus, Taipei.
(5) Some stores around no. 163, section 1, Dun Hua South Road, near the Haagen Dazs
Ice Cream Store.
(6) A store namely <King Cheu Store>, located around lane 190,
Section 1, Dun Hua S Rd., adjacent to Bossini, a block from Royal Host.
(7) In addition to Taipei, Taoyuan Tai-mall has a few out-let
stores.
(8) Some stores in the lane ( cross point : 9, WenZou
Street & 260, Section 1, HePing S. Road) not too far from National Taiwan Normal University.
(9) Some other outlet with very economic prices, see The Liberty Times
of Mar. 14, 2009, Apple Daily of Aug
10, 2008, or phone (07) 225-5208 etc.
●
Radio Taiwan International
(中央廣播電台,
12-26-2018)
: illegal migrant workers will lead to public security concerns。brief
Liberty Times (自由時報)
4-3-2018
: illegal
migrant workers
is not only public security issue ( count for 58% criminal rate ) but also state
security problem (epidemic prevention, nearly 10 thousands of abandoned babies)
brief
台灣醒報
5-6-2019 : Legislative Yuan points out so many illegal
foreign laborers...，leads to crime issue concerns.
UDN (聯合報), China Times (中國時報), 9-5-2019:
illegal migrants lead to loophole of social security...
the government should not avoid the problem。
pts.org
(公視), 9-5-2019: Kaohsiung city mayor says illegal migrants make more
problems ...
●
Many Korean media, e.g.,
Yonhap News Agency (韓聯社), Donga Ilbo (東亞日報), and largest web portal Naver,
reported in Jan. 2017 in large scale or great length to lash out Taiwan's
no-good society security. The China Times (1-17-2017) reported
Korean netizen criticized a number of internet celebrities took money to do
propaganda work for Taiwan
―
however, they
"over-beautified" Taiwan's image. This may harm the increasing-rate
(32.5%, reported by The Liberty Times12-11-2016) of Korean tourists to Taiwan.
ps: Japan increased 17.5%, Hong Kong & Macau 6.43%, East-Southern Asia 12.86%.
The United Daily (1-18-2017): Korean media are busy in warning their tourists to
Taiwan, and even criticized Korean diplomatic dept. and Korea office in Taiwan
both did a bad job... (UDN Public editorial)
●
Taiwan's police was one of
corrupt/extremely
corrupt institutions
in Taiwan according to
survey-reports by <Transparency
International>, Germany.
Taiwan's National Chung Cheng university's survey
(1.27.2014) found nearly
70% Taiwanese people are not satisfy
Taiwan's
society security (criminal rate, public
order),
50.4% Taiwanese worry becoming next victim
in criminal cases, which reach a
new high within recent 5 years (<Apple
Daily>, 1.27.2014).
◎
Police
(No.1 on google by English keyword
"comment Taiwan police", 6-23-2016, No.1 ranking on google, yahoo by
"comment Taiwan police" in Chinese
at 1-1-2017, 6-23-2016 )
or
backup file
http://intlHumanRights.com/BadPolice.htm
◎
Judiciary
(No.1 ranking on Yahoo, No1. on google
at 11-14-2016,
but
can't be open in some
random-selected governmental
institutions - e.g., National
Library ( test at 2-19-2016) , ) or
backup file
http://intlHumanRights.com/TaiwanJudiciary.htm
◎
Prosecutors
(No.1
ranking on Google by English keyword
"Taiwan prosecutors" at 6-23-2016.
but
can't be open in some
random-selected governmental
institutions - e.g., National
Library ( test at 2-19-2016) ,) backup file
http://intlHumanRights.com/ProsecutorsTaiwan.htm
◎
pic. left:
Singapore's the Straits
Times (head-page and main page) reported Zola Zu organized world
No.1 ranking cartoon contest to promote human rights and freedom of
expression
pic. middle: Zola Zu criticized Taiwan's judicial system
and prosecutors via the United Daily News system
(half-page)
20+ years ago,
however, Taiwan has resisted changes till now.
pic. right:
Zola Zu
criticized Taiwan's pollution problems via the United Daily News
system
(half-page)
20+ years ago, however, Taiwan has resisted changes till now.
/ July 2016
pic:The
monument (1999) at front of National Assembly
(ZhongShan Hall, Taipei) to
celebrate the triumph in the war
of resistance against Japanese invasion and
Retrocession of Taiwan. In
Aug. '15, textbook protest
students want the phrase "(接收)take
over Taiwan" instead of "(光復)Retrocession
or recovery
of Taiwan", in their deep
mind, they are against one-China
policy.
M.D.s advised Taiwanese
favorite new-in spicy hot-pot
may causes illness if having
much; pic. above is
tranditional Chinese ShanXi hot pot
in Taiwan for
instant boiled meat, was
no longer popular.
I ate turtles and
alligator-tail in
Florida before, a widely saying
in China & Taiwan
―
eating soft-shell turtles
is good for regimen, however,
Taiwan just found
turtles (甲魚/水魚)
in a famous restaurant
chain contain
poisonous LMG, etc.
(CNA,
7-25-2015)
pic. above is a tourism
site in S. TW.
Hong Kong's
TimHoWan is a Michelin
star restaurant, but Taiwan's branch
restaurant is not.
Original
Shanghai flavor foods,
was intro. by Wall
Street Journal.
Chiang or Jiang G.K.
(蔣經國), Former president's
favorite-food restaurant was no
longer crowded.
After being remodeled, the
Northern Gate no longer looks
like a heritage-treasure.
Black-glass-front-door barber
shops
are no longer popular, only a
few were survived till present
- in there you find
nostalgic flavor and more likely
have 'entertainment' service by
aged female, mostly.
Taiwan police turn a
blind eye to so many
erotic business fr. so many
years.
◎
◎
12.
Taiwan's tourism strategy & tactics
(brief of experts'
opinions)
●
United Daily
(1-21-2017):
embedded marketing / product
placement using world movies e.g., Martin Scorsese<Silent>, or Luc
Besson <Lucy> work well to boost Taiwan's tourism. /
by 王長安
●
United Daily
(1-21-2017):
High mountains and sea are Taiwan's attraction - Penghu
Islands was selected
as No. 6 The World's best secret
islands by Lonely Planet
(6-12-2012). High mountain ridges
and cloud belt forest are good ... /
郭瓊瑩 Chinese Culture Univ. TW.
●
Increase the number of those
"travel independently without tour-guide" (自由行), decrease the number
of tour groups, so as to benefit more fields of business in Taiwan.
● Promote
high-quality tour, theme tour, high-end tour groups
――
5 star business travel groups, cruise ship tours, in-depth
native Taiwanese visiting tour, etc
●
Focus on
South-East Asian new rich class,
as well as Korean and
Japanese,
As for European and
Americans
still
regard Taiwan as an electronic factory, so
Taiwan can first off be a "supporting actor" , doing joint marketing
with neighborhood countries.
●
Ref. to
neighbor
countries' strategies―― mainland
Chinese "vacation with pay", Korea's "vacation economy", giving
employee 3+ days off in a row, Japan's opening in wide-range
duty-free shops to attract Chinese tourists, Singapore's
creative-learning tour, USA's exporting pop-cultures to promote
tourism ...
● According
to statistics, tourists' major purpose is sight-seeing, more
are female, aged 30-39,
Taiwan
better expands other
marketing fragmentation, adding family
tour, medical tourism, learning tour, etc, and attracts more
foreigners by cultural creativity, business cooperation ways,
and
customization projects. Higher-education
tourists benefit Taiwan's economy more...
●
Establish a better living environment, and a more civilized state by
improving infrastructures, sanitary / hygienic degree, medical
quality, law & regulation, etc.
●
United Daily News
Group's Economic Daily News
(9-10-2015
經濟日報 ):
KMT presidential candidate (洪秀柱) in a meeting
advised tourism business to
promote the safety
of accommodationand transportation, and the quality of
souvenirs, presents and others,
tourism businessmen suggested raising the
upper limit of daily entry number for Chinese tourists - group
tourists as well as independent tourists up to 10,000 per day
respectively. ( ps: Liberty Times 11-4-2015: Tourism government:
it's inappropriate to open more Chinese tourists ; Liberty
Times 11-20-2015: Taiwan suddenly open more Chinese tourists,
3000 persons extra per day, it's not a health policy ... )
●
CTV (<中視>) evening
news (10-21-2015): opinions on the net criticize that Taiwan's
tourism commercial (by world famous director John Wu) only focused
on eating, Taiwan's tourism leader even don't know who
Kimura
Takuya
(leading actor in that film costing NT50 million) is.
●
The Liberty Times
(10-22-2015):
Legislator
criticized Taiwan's tourism ads. flattering & focusing on "small eat" (street
foods), but those small eats in each night markets are highly
homogenous, all about the same, and lack of "culture".
Lots
of red Chinese tourists came with little budgets - USD94 per person,
in contrast, tourists from Germany or Australia often spent
USD1000+. In last year, the number of tourists visiting Taiwan
is 9.91 million, but Taiwanese went overseas is up to 11.84 million,
foreign countries earned Taiwanese money 159.6 billion,
everything says Taiwan's tourism strategy went
the wrong route.
Taiwanese tourism government expressed the proportion of Chinese
independent tourists will be increased,
South-East
tourists' visa procedure will be simplified.
●
The United Daily (12-21-2015): The number of tourists to Taiwan in
2015 grows a lot, but foreign exchange income decreases, Taiwan needs
more attractions, and better high-end tours and value-added (historical & experienced) elements.
● The Liberty Times
(12-20-2015): Taiwan's number of tourists reaches 10 million
persons, It is "win face, loss the real beef" ! because
foreign exchange income is far from expected, one problem is Chinese
tourists only visit their own subcontractor shops and evade lots of
taxes.
◎
◆
Without
Chinese tourists,
Taiwan tourism entered
emergency room
middle Sept. , 2016
major mass media
critic essays
points
author
cyber links
The
Liberty Times, 9-9-2016
Taiwan tourism nothing special,
once is enough (觀光沒特色 一次就看光光)
Taiwan tourism has no
attraction, e.g., landmark spot
― Sun-Moon
Lake, attracts
neither foreigners nor
local people, let alone other
places (沒有陸客的日月潭，其實並沒有甚麼外國遊客前往，連本國人民來捧場的都不多。像日月潭這樣具台灣指標性的景點尚且如此，那其他的景點怎麼辦？...根本原因就在於我們的觀光對於消費者沒有吸引力
。)
邱智淵
http://talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1030401
The
Liberty Times, 9-7-2016
Taiwan tourism should have
forward thinking - no
longer "short
swing trading"
(台灣應反轉中客觀光的短有長空思維)
Both
declined
tourism quality and
political-conflict factors
resulted in the number of
Chinese tourists decreased...
transformation & upgrading are
solutions for Taiwan tourism
(中客減少，或許不光是政治因素，台灣日漸低落的觀光品質也該負起部分責任... 提早轉型提升，才是台灣觀光業的百年大計。)
Taiwan
government figured out no
specific solutions to save
tourism industry
(新政府更提不出具體解決的方法
，只會一再拋出新南向政策鼓勵東南亞旅客、陸客市場轉型、推廣國旅等口號。但這些緩不濟急的方案...)
冷眼集
http://udn.com/news/story/10272/1950542
United Daily, 2016-09-09
Broken fishing rod can't get
fishes (業者「釣竿都折斷了怎抓魚？」)
shift-funds
policy won't save Taiwan tourism
industry (300億救觀光？
要救產業，不是只有挹注資金就能救)
記者侯俐安
http://udn.com/news/story/1/1951394
United Daily, 2016-09-09
Only aromatic flowers attract
bees
(觀光產業 「花若芬芳 蝴蝶自來」)
Taiwan needs a neat, clean,
convenientenvironment to
entertain our tourists
and customers(重新檢視整備健全美好的接待環境，讓台灣也有如日本、歐美般的整潔便利...)
賴瑟珍／台灣觀光協會會長
http://udn.com/news/story/7339/1949493
Apple Daily, 2016-09-09
How to rescue freezing Taiwan
tourism industry
(觀光產業寒冬如何解)
Taiwan government took a wrong
initial step which resulted in
local tourism business expanded
rapidly before they were
prepared for tourists
(
始作俑者是過去政策，未考量國內觀光產業硬體接團條件
，導致業者盲目擴充)
Tourism industry should take
time to improve their weak
constitution, otherwise,
government
can't do anything but
concessional loan
(政府要觀光業者改變體質，也要給段時間，否則最後也只有優惠貸款這一招
了)
Taiwan needs a policy
in an open attitude
(
台灣此刻必須做出快速明確的政策，開放簽證、開放導遊、開放以觀光引導全面政策)
簡余晏/北市觀光傳播局長
http://talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1030402
◆
pic.:"comment Taiwan restaurants" ranks No.1 on
US Google, 1-26-2018
pic.: This site was
was ranked No.1 by
"comment
Taiwan restaurants" on US Bing, 3-19-2018
◆
pic.: This site was
was ranked No.1 & 2 by
"comment Taiwan restaurants" on Yahoo search, 3-19-2018
pic.:"comment Taiwan restaurants"
(Chinese)
was ranked No.1 on Baidu of China,
3-18-2018
pic.:"comment Taiwan restaurants"
was ranked No.1 on Baidu of
China, 3-18-2018
ps:◆
ps0
top 10 tourism destinations in
Asia & the Pacific /
World Tourism rankings
The World Tourism rankings
are compiled by the United
Nations World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) as part of
their World Tourism Barometer
publication. In 2014, the top
ten destinations :
Rank
Tourists
arrival 2014
1
China
55.6
million
2
Hong Kong (China)
27.7
million
3
Malaysia
27.4
million
4
Thailand
24.7
million
5
Macau (China)
14.5
million
6
S. Korea
14.2
million
7
Japan
13.4
million
8
Singapore
11.8
million
9
Taiwan
9.9
million
10
Indonesia
9.4
million
11
Vietnam
7.8
million
ps:
No.125, then changed to n/a.
◎
ps
00
For Taiwan's real images,
pls. ref. to these commercial ads.
made by a Japanese Air: https://www.behance.net/gallery/10130791/Japan-Asia-Airways.
◎
ps 1
Taiwan's restaurants intro. by world
reports :
< Miele
Guide> of 2011/2012
<The
Daily Meal> (USA) , 5-16-2013
◆
<The Daily Meal> (USA) , 10-10-2014
●
Din Tai Fung
● 銀翼 (best dishes:文思豆腐,蔥開煨麵)
● 欣葉 (02-25963255, best: 煎豬肝, 菜埔蛋)
●
樂沐法式餐廳, a French restaurant (excellent, evaluated by Relais &
Chateaux in 2011)
in Taichung city (04)23753002(best
dish: 經典套餐NT3800)
●
La Cocotte, a traditional French cuisine restaurant own by Fabien Verge (02)33223289 (best dish: NT980白酒墩牛肚)
●台南(Tainan)度小月擔仔麵
●非零餐廳 (meaning translation: Non-zero restaurant)
●義大利餐館(Osteria by Angie), an Italia restaurant
●七十二牛肉麵 (Seventy-Two beef noodle restaurant)
●法式餐廳(La Cocotte, a French restaurant)
●鐵匠鐵板燒居酒屋。
●
Din Tai Fung
●No.6 Din Tai Fung (was already
wiped out of
Michelin star list of 2014/2015)
●No.43 Le Mout, Taichung (the
official website spelt wrongly - "Taiching")
●No.42 DN innovation, Taipei, Taiwan
●No.61 Osteria de Angie, Taipei, Taiwan
●No.73 La Cocotte, a French
restaurant, Taipei, TW
●No.79 七十二牛肉麵 (Seventy-Two beef noodle
restaurant, Taipei, Taiwan)
ps:
also
may ref. to Apple Daily's Next magazine "The Best Restaurants
2013 - high end & low end" in Taiwan (<壹周刊> "美食大賞2013"之"高檔餐廳"與"平價餐廳"二版本)。
◎
ps 2
CNNGO
introduced
(3-23-2012) Taiwanese street-side snacks in night markets and
ranked Taipei as No. 2 among
Asia's 10 greatest
street foods. (台灣台北的夜市小吃排名亞洲第二)
No.1
Malaysia's Penang,
No.3
Thailand's Bangkok,
No.4
Vietnam's
河內, No.5
Singapore,
No.6 Korea
Seoul, No.7
China's
XiAnn, No.8
Philippines
Manila...
台北的夜市小吃
Top 10
street foods
in Taipei's
night
markets名亞洲第二
●1. Sheng jian bao
(生煎包) / Taiwan Normal Univ. night market( 師大夜市)
●
2. Chou doufu (stinky tofu,臭豆腐
) /
Raohe St. Night Market (饒河夜市)
●
3. Oa misua (oyster vermicelli,
蚵仔麵線 )
/ Shilin night market
(士林夜市) ●
4. Gua bao (pork
belly bun or "Taiwanese burger," as it's sometimes called, 掛包 ) /
Taiwan Normal Univ. night market( 師大夜市)
● 5. Hujiao bing ( wheat buns
more accurately, pies or pockets, 胡椒餅 )
/
Raohe St. Night Market (饒河夜市)
●
6. Niu rou mian ( spicy beef soup with
hand-pulled noodles, 牛肉麵 ) / LaoPai Niurou La Mian Da Wang, Chongqing Nan Lu Yi Duan
46 Gang, Taipei
●
7. Douhua 豆花 /
士林夜市
(Shilin night market) ●
8. Ba wan (Taiwanese
meatballs)肉丸 /
Taiwan Normal Univ. night market( 師大夜市)
●
9. Cong you bing ( a flaky scallion pancake made with
hand-rolled dough) 蔥油餅 / Shilin night market
(士林夜市)●
10. Da chang bao xiao chang (Small
Sausage in Large Sausage ,
big sausage wrapped
around small sausage)大腸包小腸 / Shilin night market
(士林夜市)
◎
◎
ps
3
103年來臺旅客按目的分
Visitor Arrivals by Purpose of Visit, 2014
ps 6
Some best-known
doggerel (slang) by communist Chinese
tourists (group sightseers) who visited Taiwan already
-「傷痕文學」順口溜
Taiwanese media
slang
PS
● CNA (中央社) 2013/01/19 （記者林恆立、黃國芳19日綜合報導）
"Getting up be earlier than the cock do, hurrying on be faster than the
racing horse
do,
sleeping be later than the thief do, dining be worse than the pig do" (
「起得比雞早、跑得比馬快、睡得比賊晚、吃得比豬差」)
budget for tourism advertising,
the China Times,
10-15-2015
Taiwan
NT1.90 billion
Japan
NT2.40 billion
Malaysia
NT2.40 billion
Hong Kong
NT2.47 billion
Macau
NT4.80 billion
Thailand
NT5.85 billion
◎
ps 8
TVBS
12-19-2015 20:56 : tourists revisit rate
/ Chinese 11.08%, Japanese 50%, Macau &
Hong Kong 70.11%.
◎
ps 9
◎The China Times (2-13-2016),
editorial <Never lie to your people>:
According to report by Union pay intl.
, the total amount by Chinese tourists'
ATM cash money and slotting credit card
in last year was more than 200 billions
dollars, Some Taiwanese media reporting
Chinese tourists brought no benefit is
not true obviously, and those
reports confused businessmen's benefit
and macro economics
benefits. (混淆了業者獲利與總體經濟獲利的不同。)
ps 10
tourism government
official site:
http://www.taiwan.net.tw/
ps 11
Chinese tourists
National days long holidays' most
popular
sites, according to mega data (United
Daily, 3-6-2016) : 1.
Xi-Mun Din,西門町
2.Kenting Park 3. Sun Moon Lake 4.
Taipei 101 5. YehLiu 6. Shih-Lin Night Market
7. TaroKo 8. Ali Shan 9.
Taiwan's National Palace Museum
10. JiuFen
ps 12:
Economist 3-16-2016, brief of Taiwan
As the EIU expected, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) won a comfortable victory in the presidential election
on January 16th. The DPP also secured a landslide majority in the
simultaneous legislative poll, in part because many Kuomintang
voters stayed home on election day. We expect momentum behind
stronger cross-Strait ties to ebb as a result. Economic growth will
average 2.5% annually in 2016-20 as external and domestic demand
remain relatively weak.
ps 13:
Hot spring in Taiwan
/ 12-18-2015,
Liberty Times
溫泉
type
contact
TaiNan Guanziling Hot Spring
Scenic Area
Mud Springs
(泥漿溫泉)
06-6823456
TaiNan 台南景大莊園
Mud Springs
(泥漿溫泉)
06-6822500
yilan
宜蘭頭城東森酒店
Sulfur
Salt Spring (硫磺鹽泉)
yilan ehr hotel
北投青磺名湯Beitou
or Peitou district of Taipei
City
sulphur spring(硫磺泉)
02-28953030
Beitou park open-air
北投公園露天溫泉
sulphur spring(
硫磺泉)
02-28972260
舊金山總督溫泉
Sulfur
Salt Spring
(硫磺鹽泉)
02-24082628
TaiDong 台東綠島朝日溫泉
Sulfur
Salt Spring (硫磺鹽泉)
089-671-133
all others in gov. website
http://admin.taiwan.net.tw/public/public.aspx?no=272
ps 14: The Liberty Times, 6-16-2016
/ To promote tourism
industry, Taiwan is simplifying visa process for 8 South-East Asian countries - Thailand,
India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia.
The United Daily, 6-20-2016 / The strategy of attracting South-East Asian tourists probably is hard to be put
in practice : Lacking of tour guides,
complicated VISA procedure, not enough Muslin-friendly environment,
half-done English road-signs in points of attraction ...
★
ps 15: : Rough Guides ― Things Not To Miss In Taiwan
1. Sun Moon Lake 2. KinMen 金門 3. Hot Springs 4. Kenting National Park墾丁 5.Taroko Gorge
太魯閣 6. LuGang 7.Orchid Island 蘭嶼 8.Aboriginal culture 9.TaiNan, myriad temples
台南 10.Surfing
Rough Guides (Jan. 2017 )
intro Taiwan's new wave cafés,
all-round sophisticated city life, and
TW cuisine and night markets remain world renowned...China’s influence is obvious, of course, and the
cultural remnants of the island’s past occupation by both Japanese and
American forces are still discernible. But as the only democracy in the
Chinese-speaking world, Taiwan has a unique geography, mentality and
identity.....Non-stop
nightlife is never far from bubbling hot
springs and sunny sub-tropical shores... https://www.roughguides.com/best-places/2017/top-10-countries/
●
●
ps 16:
National
Geographic (2-22-2016 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/best-winter-trips-2016/):
New Taipei City, Taiwan is one of Best
Winter Trips 2016, for "The
Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is one of
Taiwan’s most beloved Chinese New Year
events. Staged in New Taipei City’s
mountainous Pingxi District, the
festival’s main lantern launch site is
Shifen Sky Lantern Square."
●
ps 17:
● traffic accidents
twice between Feb. and May 2015
TVBS – 4-6-2015:
3 cars accidents in A-Li mountain ( Alishan 阿里山山區)，5 Chinese adults and 2
children were wounded, one is in serious condition. ...
CNA 中央社(2-17-2015）:
Some red Chinese tourists in Pin-Dong tourist-bus accident (東航旅行社及歡笑旅行社負責接待，詳細人數及傷勢仍在了解中。)
Apple Daily (12-12-2015): A bus loading Chinese tourists got a 1-death &
4-wounded traffic accident. Police issued 355 violation sheets to
large vehicles in A-Li drive-ways in this year.
●Too
many accidents in 2011-2012
―― statistics below
Epoch Times(大紀元時報) reported tourists accidents
within 2011-2012: (1)
Beijing tour group got bus accident in HuaLien (花蓮), 3
serious injury, 28 injury
(2012-09-25)
(2).
Tour bus entered
motorcycle line, bus roof destroyed, 24 injuries
(2012-08-25)
(3).
Eight tour-bus and cars
collision in PinDong (2012-04-04)
(4).
Ali mountain tour bus
accident, 7 in hospital (2011-07-10)
(5).
tour bus accident, 7
in hospital , one driver died (2011-03-26)
details pls. ref. to http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/tag/%E9%99%B8%E5%AE%A2%E5%9C%98%E8%BB%8A%E7%A6%8D.html
●
ps
◆◆
◆
★
pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword
"comment
Taiwan"
on Google, 12-4-2016, 11-25-2016, 4-15-2017, 9-28-2017, 1-15-2018
pic: This websites-group was ranked
No.1 by keyword "understand Taiwan" on Google, 1-6-2017,
4-15-2017,
9-28-2017, 1-15-2018
●
●
Pic.
left: Ranking No.1 on google by English keyword
"comment Taiwan restaurants"
2-2-2018,
9-9-2017, ,
1-10-2017, Sept. 2, 2015.
Pic. :
Ranking No.1 on Yahoo by Chinese keyword "comment Taiwan foods" or
"comment Taiwan delicacies",
2-2-2018, 1-10-2017, Sept. 2, 2015.
1.
Taiwanese food -
controversial fish
int'l views
restaurants
night-markets
buffet
transportation
massage entertainment
natural beauties
architectures
expenses
art&culture
heritage
outlet/shopping
criminal
rate
WEF <Travel
and tourism competitiveness report> of 9-4-2019 shows
Taiwan had the sub-region's largest
decline in competitiveness
(30th to 37th), due to significantly
tightened visa requirements (37th to 119th),
waning cultural resources and business
travel (26th to 36th) and recalibrated
figures showing a drastic reduction in
protected areas (20th to 118th),
etc;
New
York Times, 7-31-2019, CNN
8-1-2019: China, an Eye on Elections,
bans
solo tourists from heading to Taiwan.
Independent UK 8-1-2019: It is a
blow for Taiwan’s tourism industry.
L.A. Times, 8-1-2019: The
indefinite suspension is likely to prove
a major economic hit to Taiwan, as well
as a blow to cultural interplay.
Liberty Times 8-28-2019: Taiwan may loss
35,400 million dollars from the gross
annual value of tourism in the second
half of 2019. United Daily
(8-17-2019, editorial) : Very most part
of Taiwan's current tourism difficult
situation is caused by
cross-Taiwan-Strait policy.
United Daily (8-22-2019, editorial) :
Pension reform might be among key issues
in Taiwan's tourism, because public
servants, military and education field
no longer
support domestic
travel as much as before.
United Daily (8-28-2019, Focus) :
Visa-free and allowance can save
tourism? Lots of allowances were
given to domestic tourists, but the
number of Taiwanese traveling overseas
hit new high again and again.
United Daily (8-23-2019) : Taiwan
president Tsai: tourism won't go old
route, current policy is to balance
tourists flow, stimulate domestic
demand, increase consumption-amount,
satisfy tourist's appetite by bubble tea
and local cuisine.
The
United Daily, editorial opinion,
7-15-2019 : An American economist Tyler
Cowen was surprised at that Taipei was
spinning its wheels, remains 85%
unchanged (making smallest differences
among Asian cities), motorcycles, small
lanes ... everywhere, in contrast,
GuangZhou city (廣州) has changed 90%, HK,
Seoul, Singapore made huge differences
only within 10 years ...; Apple
Daily, opinion, 12-25-2019: Give up "almozo"
promote-tourism policy, select "quality oriented" route ! Nikkei Asia Review
4-30-2019:
Since 2016, China has attempted to
punish Tsai (DPP) by reducing tour
groups to Taiwan, but inbound tourists
have steadily set records surpassing 11
millions for the first time last year... The
United Daily 3-7-2019: Taiwan's tourism
output value is suffering wallet
homicide ! the deficit of foreign
exchange is NT1728 billions, the deficit
of the number of tourists is 5570
thousands. The
United Daily 10-6-2018 editorial
opinion: Taiwan's 'heresy' policy of
tourism (subsidies, visa-free) led to
800+ billion dollars decrease of
earnings, because of lower consuming
ability of South Eastern Asian tourists and
smaller number of Chinese tourists.
Apple Daily, head-page,
12-31-2018: The amount of tourists
spending per day and the number of days tourists staying decreased.
The
Washington Post at 1-5-2018: (The
Chinese government...) "encouraging
Chinese tourism to this island" (ps:
during KMT in power ~ 2016 ).
New York Times at 2-22-2018: "The
Chinese government has discouraged
tourism to Taiwan...".
Apple
Daily, opinion, 2-12-2018: lacking of
monument elements, mature cultural
creativity, and inexpensive tour-site
hotels ... shallow, careless,
low-end quality led to an extremely low return
visitor rate to Taiwan.
Apple Daily,
Headline news 1-15-2018: Taiwan
tourism collapsed like a snow-slide,
the number of tourists to Kenting National Park(墾丁貓鼻頭)
dropped 59%, to Taroko National Gorge
(太魯閣) dropped 43%, etc, because of the
number of Chinese tourists declined a
lot and local people don't like those
sites - Apple Daily opinion
1-17-2018: expensive hotels, crowded
traffic, getting ripped-off by greedy
shops' ...
CTV news 3-9-2018 : beautiful island
turns into killing island (traffic
accidents), Taiwan's tourism might be a
long dark night.
UDN opinion 4-11-2018: tourism-related
business everywhere are complaining of
great hardship (齊喊苦);
food
safety issues never end /
The China Times, editorial
10-20-2018, UDN editorial 12-4-2018.
The United Daily 12-10-2018: tourism
deficit expansion! The number of
Taiwanese traveling abroad is more than
that of tourists to Taiwan. 
One of the most underrated tourist
destinations in Asia
