《TAIPEI TIMES》 Taiwan touts Route No. 2 after BBC article on cycling

A map of Taiwan’s Cycling Route No. 1 and Route No. 2 are pictured in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications

By Wu Liang-yi and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A longer, safer Taiwan Cycling Route No. 2 is to be completed by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai （陳世凱） said yesterday after a BBC report released last week praised Route No. 1.

The 1,000km Route No. 1 takes cyclists from the northeastern coast to the Hualien-Taitung area, circling Taitung County before entering urban areas of western Taiwan.

Chen said the improved 1.019km-long Route No. 2 would feature exclusive lanes and account for existing paths and terrain, while repurposing abandoned sections of railway.

The route aims to provide cyclists with maximum comfort and safety, as well as ensuring that the paths are continuous and unbroken, he said.

The main difference between the routes is that Route No. 2 features more exclusive bike lanes, about 37 percent of the route, compared with Route No. 1’s 11.2 percent, he added.

Route No. 1 was featured in an article by Andrew Nachemson, published on BBC’s Web site on Friday.

Nachemson wrote that while cycling in Taiwan has been popular for more than 50 years and the nation is “one of the world’s greatest cycling destinations,” the activity gained renewed interest following the 2006 film Island Etude （練習曲） about a college student cycling around Taiwan proper and the people he meets along the way, the article said.

“As more Taiwanese cyclists set out on the huandao [環島, ‘around the island’] the Taiwanese government inaugurated the circular route as Taiwan Cycle Route No 1 in 2015 — creating a sort of ‘national’ network of cycle paths and roads,” he wrote.

Nachemson also commented on the hospitality of Taiwanese, writing that when he got a flat tire on the north coast, a Taiwanese cyclist stopped to help him patch it up.

When he arrived in Hualien County’s Rueisuei Township （瑞穗） at dusk, “the owner of a fully booked guesthouse called every other hotel until she found me an inn to stay at.”

“When I arrived, a family staying there insisted on feeding me stir-fried noodles and pork soup,” he added.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES

A screen grab of an article on the BBC’s Web site shows a person riding on Taiwan’s Cycling Route No. 1. Photo: Screen grab from the BBC’s Web site