Yilan is only a two-hour drive from Taipei but provides a completely different experience from the bustling capital city.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/10/23
By: TNL Staff

The happiness of a small town can permeate its peripheral area, and Yilan is an example of that. Only two hours drive from Taipei, Yilan is sometimes called “Taipei’s backyard” because of its proximity to the city and its lush landscape.

Walk in Taiwan, originally a Taipei walking tour company, has expanded its routes to introduce sustainable, authentic travel experiences in other Taiwanese cities. In October and November, Walk in Taiwan has partnered with Yilan’s Lanyang Museum to organize a collective tour named “Five Ways to Stroll Around Yilan.” This includes five different lifestyles involving small towns like Toucheng (頭城), Shengou (深溝), and more, where Taipei city dwellers are encouraged to go and experience a relaxing weekend while learning more about local cultures.

Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), the magistrate of Yilan in the 1980s, decided to keep Yilan away from industrial pollution and rejected the sixth naphtha cracker project. Although a controversial decision at the time, Yilan has been kept as a secret garden with more and more tourists visiting each year. With the Snow Mountain tunnel opening in 2006, Yilan has been getting more weekend traffic as the tunnel has directly connected the road from Yilan to Taipei.

For the Yilan tours, Walk in Taiwan emphasizes on providing travelers with an experience of “slow island living.” In Shengou, for example, travelers can interact with Taiwanese micro farmers who utilize the clean water sources in the region. Most of these micro farmers, surprisingly, are in their early 30s and have moved from big cities — some of them even have master’s degrees and speak multiple languages. The new-wave micro farmers in Yilan have been pushing for agricultural reforms by drastically reducing pesticides.    [FULL  STORY]