By Douglas Habecker, translated by Dong Xu Li

      To mark the launch of Taichung's first monthly English tourism supplement, COMPASS Co-Publisher Douglas Habecker interviewed Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu about the current and future development of tourism in Central Taiwan.

COMPASS: When it comes to tourism in Taichung, what are the best things that Taichung has to offer?

      Mayor Hu: I'll say a leisurely atmosphere is number one. We often say, "It's the world in one city." Taichung's very internationalized, yet very local. I think this leisurely atmosphere includes good food, good accommodations, and good places to go out for a cup of coffee or a glass of beer. For all these, I think Taichung ranks number one. We are discovering that more and more expatriates--especially from Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu--are finding their way to Taichung for a wonderful weekend, so that all the hotels are swamped with expatriate tourists during the weekends. I think this all shows that Taichung is modern, leisurely and Taiwanese.

COMPASS: What specific Taichung attractions really draw people to Taichung?

      Mayor Hu: Taichung now hosts the hottest visiting points in Taiwan, like the Science Museum. The National Museum of Art, which hosts the best collection of Taiwanese artwork, also reopened about a month ago. And there's good shopping. Actually, Taichung must not limit its tourism to the city boundaries, but go beyond the city boundaries to Sun Moon Lake; Puli's Chung Tai Temple; the flower nurseries in Changhua; Lukang, with its early Taiwanese civilization; Sani, the woodcarving capital of Taiwan; and Miaoli, with its Hakka culture. Within about a reasonable one-hour radius of Taichung, you have the whole central area. This is why Taichung offers much more than Kaohsiung or Taipei. I want to make Taichung the hub for Central Taiwan tourist attractions. You don't find good hotels at some of these [outlying] areas, but you can always come back to Taichung at night, have a good dinner here, enjoy some drinks and spend the night. You could spend five days and four nights here--a beautiful holiday.

COMPASS: Are there any future developments that will boost Taichung even further as a tourist attraction?

      Mayor Hu: First, we are concentrating on a Culture Festival. Last year, it combined literature, art and music and, this year, it also takes that approach. By about the end of next year, we will have an amphitheater completed. It's an open-air theater, like the Hollywood Bowl, with outdoor seating for 15,000 people and "green" architecture, located in the seventh redevelopment district.

      With that kind of facility and the determination to organize cultural festivals, one after another, year after year, we hope that after five to 10 years we will build up the most famous art/cultural festival in Asia. You've heard of Mardi Gras or the German Munich Beer Festival, but there's nothing in Asia, so we're hoping to organize something. Last year, we had the Jazz Festival and this year, we'll have a Mardi Gras-style street carnival. Last year's Rio-style carnival, with Brazilian dancers and floats, got 100,000 people on the street in one night. The most successful example was the Lantern Festival last year, which brought 6.4 million visitors to Taichung. The average economic spin-off was NT$5 billion. Even sun cake sales reportedly reached NT$100 million in 12 days. I don't think anybody else can create that kind of record in Taiwan. This is because we are centrally located, so we must continue to use that advantage to organize festivals.

      That's the "software" and then there's the "hardware". We're trying hard to build the Guggenheim Museum for international tourism. We're working hard [to cooperate] with the Science Museum and Art Museum. We're also building an international baseball stadium, to be done the year after next, in time for the 2006 Intercontinental Baseball Games, which will be held in Taiwan.

      Of course, you cannot have tourism without good publicity. We're organizing an Information Office, which will spend at least half of its effort on tourism promotion. We also have built an Information Center on ZhongZheng Road which we hope will soon be operating as the information hub for all Central Taiwan. Other counties can leave their information there and we want people come, pick up their information and drive around. For the Lantern Festival, we called a meeting of the Central Taiwan tourist government officials and we worked together. We need to begin our cooperation in this regard, which is a win-win situation. Taichung's a modern city; if you want to attract international tourists, you have to be a hub for a lot of other places.

COMPASS: Are there any trends that will affect Taichung in the future?

      Mayor Hu: The high-speed railroad is very important for Taichung. Taichung will be within 40 minutes of Taipei, which is within the tolerated limit for commuting between the two cities. It will make Taichung even more central in Taiwan, because we will be within 40 minutes of Taipei and 45 minutes of Kaohsiung. I think the high-speed rail will transform Taichung, making it more pivotal to the daily life of all Taiwanese. I believe the new amphitheater will become the new center of performing arts, of rock or pop concerts, in Taiwan if not all Asia. Everyone has stadiums, but this will be the first amphitheater in the Chinese world. Imagine thousands of kids taking the high-speed rail for 40 minutes to Taichung, enjoying a concert, going home, and ringing their doorbells before midnight. So the high-speed rail will be very beneficial to Taichung for cultural activites, daily activities and tourism.