By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter, with CNA
Lala Mountain (拉拉山) in Taoyuan has been designated an Urban Night Sky Place by DarkSky International, becoming the first site in Taiwan and the third in Asia to receive the recognition, the city’s Department of Tourism said yesterday.
The department said it was notified of the designation on Saturday by the US-based nonprofit, which is expected to formally announce it tomorrow.
The nonprofit works to protect the nighttime environment.
A starry night on Lala Mountain in Taoyuan is pictured in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan City Government
An Urban Night Sky Place is a municipal park, open space, stargazing site or similar property in or near a heavily urbanized area, that promotes an authentic nighttime, DarkSky International said.
The designation recognizes sites that educate the public about responsible outdoor lighting that maintains public safety while reducing harm to the nighttime environment, the organization said.
DarkSky International lists 19 Urban Night Sky Places worldwide. The other two in Asia are Minami-Rokuroshi in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture and Zhangwu in China’s Zhejiang Province.
The department said applicants must meet several criteria, including being within 50km of a town with a population of more than 50,000, providing free public access and ensuring that more than two-thirds of outdoor lighting in the designated area complies with dark-sky lighting principles.
As the designated area at Lala Mountain includes indigenous communities and other residential areas, improving the lighting required extensive discussions with residents to balance dark-sky protection with road safety and daily needs, it said, adding that the city government also made adjustments to more than 400 streetlights.
The city hopes to combine ecological conservation with stargazing tourism to develop Lala Mountain as a nighttime travel destination, it said.
Separately, the Tourism Administration is seeking to attract more European visitors to Taiwan by launching a campaign in the Netherlands centered on Taiwan Travelogue (臺灣漫遊錄), an award-winning novel by Yang Shuang-zi (楊?子).
The Chinese-language novel was translated into English by Taiwanese-American translator Lin King (金翎), and Yang and Lin won the International Booker Prize earlier this year. The book had previously won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024.
Yang’s book was also translated into more than 20 languages, with the Dutch edition published on Sept. 23. De Volkskrant, a national Dutch-language daily, also published a nearly three-page feature on Taiwan on Sept. 26, focusing on Taiwanese literature, history, culture and cuisine, as well as the cultural identity of Taiwanese.
Given the recent attention to Taiwanese culture in the Netherlands, the office worked with bookstore chain Relay and China Airlines (中華航空) to jointly launch a tourism campaign centered on the award-winning book.
The novel explores Taiwanese cuisine, culture and history through the story of a Japanese writer and her Taiwanese translator in the 1930s, when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule, office director Linda Lin (林毓珊) said.
“Through the recognition from international literary awards, the world now sees Taiwan’s creative energy. This also provides a prime opportunity to showcase Taiwan as an attractive overseas destination,” Lin said.
“We hope to transform this wave of immense interest and curiosity about Taiwan into motivation to visit Taiwan,” she added.
Lin said the tourism campaign, which is to continue until Oct. 29, would feature advertisements at Relay stores at major transportation hubs in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Breda and Eindhoven Airport, targeting commuters, shoppers and travelers.
Customers shopping at Relay stores can enter a free drawing for a chance to win a trip for two to Taiwan. In addition to flight tickets provided by China Airlines, the Tourism Administration will cover four nights of accommodation in Taipei, a one-day city tour, EasyCards, admission tickets to the National Palace Museum and a Dutch-language edition of Taiwan Travelogue.
The campaign will also launch the Web site “BeleefTaiwan.nl,” where people in the Netherlands can explore Taiwan’s cities, natural landscapes, culture and cuisine, as well as tours to Taiwan offered by Dutch travel agencies.