Taiwan tourism & travel 台湾の観光&旅行 ★ The sites group ranks No. 1 : 2017~19, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010~12 ★

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pic. : 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 travel", 8-3-2019 　　 pic. left: This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Baidu of China by "comment Taiwan tour", 11-29-2019, 8-3-2019	pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Baidu of China by "comment Taiwan tourism", 11-29-2019, 8-3-2019

pic. upper right: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan tour" on US Google, 12-3-2019, 11-11-2019; pic. upper left: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan tourism" on US Google, 12-3-2019, 11-29-2019, 11-11-2019; pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan travel" on US Google, 11-29-2019, 11-11-2019
pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on ASK by "comment Taiwan tourism", 8-27-2019

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pic. upper right: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan tour" on US Google, 11-11-2019;

pic. upper left: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan tourism" on US Google, 11-11-2019;

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan travel" on US Google, 11-11-2019

pic. right: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan tourism" on US Google, 8-27-2019, 7-15-2019;

pic. left: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by "comment Taiwan travel" on US Google, 8-27-2019, 8-3-2019

pic. : 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. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on US Bing
by "comment Taiwan tourism" as well as "comment Taiwan tour"
, 7-11-2019, 3-7-2019, 9-4-2018, 6-22-2018

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" and "comment Taiwan tour", 3-7-2019, 9-4-2018, 6-22-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on US Google
by "comment Taiwan travel", 3-7-2019, 6-22-2018

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News reports / WEF <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> of 2019 shows Taiwan had the sub-region's largest decline in competitiveness, Taiwan ranks 10th in Asia, Taiwan's prioritization of travel & tourism ranks world No.75 ; New York Times, 7-31-2019, CNN 8-1-2019: 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. Independent UK 8-1-2019: It is a blow for Taiwan’s tourism industry. 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 should 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 (8-23-2019) : 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. 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. Asia Nikkei 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, editorial, 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 ...;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-East 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. 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...". CTV news 3-9-2018 : beautiful island turns into killing island (traffic accidents), Taiwan's tourism might be a long dark night. 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' ... 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.

unlike many others , this website won't give you fake information or beautified pictures !

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◆ 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,... (ps: secret hackers attacked while my updating WEF report of 2019)
　

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). For full details : http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TTCR_2019.pdf

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.

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) 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.

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 Chn and TW began at 2008, DPP (Green) in power from 2016
source: Asia Nikkei 4-30-2019, Taiwanese government

Average consumption (USD) daily of foreign tourists (Japan, Korea, China, HK&Macau, USA, Singapore, Malaysia) from 2015 till 2017 unit: USD source from TW gov., Apple Daily, Aug., 2019
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

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

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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' (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 !".

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Taiwan has never reached top 30 in <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> in past years. Taiwanese media always reported one overall ranking based 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.

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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.
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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".

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◆ 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)?

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◆ 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?
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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. But according to UK based Monocle's global Soft Power Survey (2010/2011~2017), Taiwan's soft power even lost mainland China, and some other Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, India, UAE. Taiwan also failed to be listed in 2018's Soft Power 30 Study by USC Center on Public Diplomacy in July 2018 and 2017's Soft Power 30 Study, compiled by PR company Portand Communication and University of Southern California. 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".

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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.

觀光外匯年減267億

● Taiwan government's 2 solutions to save tourism

(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, udn opinion, 12-30-2017

The number of tourists to Taipei attractions dropped sharply 2.7 million in upper yr.
/ United Daily, 10-20-2017

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● 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 appeared earlier

● logo designed by
Taiwan's national university
   ● pic. right: Korea Seoul city logo
appeared earlier
　

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.
◎◎ understand Taiwan in 1 minute !! TAIWAN review Taiwan comment Taiwan No.1 rankings on the net !
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○◎ International famous tourism & travel reports

Taiwan usually is not included on top ranking list of world travel and tourism rpt.

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◆ 2015 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report

Taiwan's weakness :		Taiwan's strength :
Index	Taiwan's world rankings	Index	Taiwan's ranking
Country Brand Strategy	No.125	taxi airport charges	No.17
Prioritization of Travel & Tourism	No.82	Internet Users	No.24
Hotel price index	No.82	access improving drinking water	No.33
Tourist service infrastructure	No.77	Mobil network coverage	No.1
Environmental Sustainability	No.69	quality of railroad	No.7
Natural Resource	No.62	Fuel price	No.22
Purchasing power parity	No.64	domestic transport network	No.7
World heritage cultural sites	the last position, n/a ps (China No.5)	Business cost of violence	No.11
World heritage natural sites	the last position, n/a (China No.3)	Taiwan has never been included in top 30 on <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (2011~2015).
major car rental companies	No.120
Travel and tourism industry development	No.53

full rpt. pls. ref. to http://reports.weforum.org/travel-and-tourism-competitiveness-report-2015 TW overall index 32 in '15.

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◆ Country Brands Index 2014/2015

Taiwan's score :

Taiwan's score location - "Countries" (left lower place)

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).
　

◆ 2011-2012 rank / Country Brand Index

index/category	2011-2012 Rank
Asia's best	1. NZ, 2 Jap, 3 Aus, 4 Sing, 5 Maldives, 6 Thai, 7 India, 8 Korea, 9 Mal, 10 Fiji, 11 Vietnam, 12 Nepal, 13 chn, 14 Indonesia, 15 Phi, 16 Laos, 17 Cambodia, 18 Bangladesh, 19 Iran, 20 Pakistan
Resort & lodging options	1 Maldives, 2 Mauritius, 3 Japan, 4 Swiss, 5 US, 6 UAE, 7 Spain, 8 Bermuda, 9 st Lucia, 10 Thai, 12 NZ, 13, Fiji
Food	1 Italy, 2France, 3 Japan, 4Spain, 5 Singapore, 6 Thailand, 7 India, 8 Brasil, 9 Malaysia, 10 Swiss, 11 Germany, 12 Vietnam, 13 Greece, 14 Australia, 15 USA
Shopping	1 US, 2 France, 3 Italy, 4 UK, 5 Japan, 6 China, 7 singapore, 8 UAE, 9 thai, 10 Germany
Attraction	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.

◎

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Baidu of China
by "comment Taiwan tourism", 9-5-2018, 6-22-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Euro. MetaGER
by "comment Taiwan travel", 9-5-2018, 6-22-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on ASK
by "comment Taiwan travel", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on DogPile
by "comment Taiwan tour", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on DuskduckGo
by "comment Taiwan tour", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on AOL
by "comment Taiwan travel", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Lycos
by "comment Taiwan travel", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on DuckDuckGo
by "comment Taiwan travel", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Yippy
by "comment Taiwan travel", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Webcrawler
by "comment Taiwan tourism", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on DogPile
by "comment Taiwan travel", 9-5-2018

pic. : This websites-group was ranked No.1 on Google
by Chinese keyword "comment Taiwan travel", 9-4-2018, 6-22-2018

●
◎
About Taiwan's travel & tourism

1. Taiwanese food - restaurants in Taiwan / This sites-group ranks No.1 by "comment Taiwan food", "comment Taiwan restaurants", and "comment Taiwan foods" on US Google, till summer 2019;
World Economic Forum (WEF) <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> released at 9-4-2019 shows Taiwan ranking No.43, (score 6) in Health & Hygiene.

○

	weirdo Taiwan's tourism advertisement !! "Dining X Taipei" (a too big 'X') 　 Cambridge dictionary : "X" is (1) unknown / a number, or name or thing that is not known or stated (2) mistake / the answer is not correct (3) Delete / to remove something (4) kisses
pic.: Tourism ads. for Taiwan, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwyuCsmMqTM	ps: Taiwan got food safety scare for years

○
● 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 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 USA Nearly Shut Down for Unsatisfactory Health Inspection...The Brand Personality ?
Din Tai Fung Michelin star

★ 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, HK, and Taipei.

★ Taiwan prosecutor charged Din Tai Fung for violating copyrights law / UDN 4-12-2018, https://udn.com/news/story/11315/3081736

◎

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 civilized country - compared with the US and American's restaurants with nice 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 !!

◆ 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)

◎

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 ).

○

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.

○


◆ 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 (Sheraton Grand Taipei, 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 ...?

GM food

◆ 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
　

○◎

◎

◆ left: Grand Hotel Taipei used GM beans, photo 6-8-2018

◆ right: Sherwood(西華飯店), photo 5-28-2018
Braised Bean Curd with Crab Powder tastes good, but got no answer if they used G.M.(genetic modified) , GM was called as "national scandal", The China Times, 3-29-2013.

◎

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.
◆ A Hong Kong media revealed some widely-known Japanese restaurant in Taiwan displayed raw fish and other sushi more than 30 minutes.

◎

		◆ pic. left: watermelon, grape, tuna in Sheraton buffet (top~bottom) 　　　 ◆ pic. middle: tuna in Shangri La's Taipei, cafe (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, 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 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. ◆ 今周刊(1-19-2018): The best way to avoid parasites and bacteria, e.g., Listeria monocytogenes or Vibrio parahaemolyticus , is eating cooked fish. (www.businesstoday.com.tw/article/category/80731/post/201801190019)
\|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...

◎

sanitary problems◎

◆ 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

◆

◎

Taiwanese foods
　

US president Bush was in Taiwanese restaurant

Beaviss : dummy ! there's no poison, addictives, MSG, lard oil, gutter oil, etc

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

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    ◆ 2. World best restaurants (2013 - 2017) 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.
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◆ 4. Miele Guide (2012) : No any Taiwanese restaurant is included in top 20 Asian restaurants list.

◆ 5. Michelin Taipei ( Mar. 2018) : pls click to see

ps1: Taiwan's restaurants intro. by world reports pls. ref. to the table at end of this web-pages
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2. Taiwanese food - night market, small eat ( 小吃)

1. ◎ 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. night markets (street food) !

◎ 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? ",... ◎ 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 .
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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
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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.

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Best food - braised pork rice in Taiwan

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.

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CNN: 40 Taiwanese foods we can not live without

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: moved to new shop an-dong str in 2018; Mar 2019, moved to BaDe Rd near FuXin N.)

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Taiwan, a ripping-tourists-off paradise

Shi-lin night market

Shi-Mun Din (西門町)

Keng-Tin (墾丁大街)

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Taiwan tour & travel

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

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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??

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◆ 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)

◆ 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.

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◆ Chang Gung Mem. Hospital professor T.H. Yen M.D. (顏宗海, 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))

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◆ 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.

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◆ TTV (台視 2-11-2017 12:24pm) news reports: People dining out should be careful not 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".
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◆ 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 industrial plasticisers, 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

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◆ 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.

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◆ 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)

night market food	heat (Kcal)大卡
Deep fried chicken breast (炸雞排)	657
蚵仔煎 Oyster Omelet	525
油炸臭豆府腐 deep fried Stinky Tofu	496
天婦羅	482
士林大香腸 Large Sausage	385
大餅包小餅 Small pie in Large pie	385
士林大煎包 Pan-fried Pork Dumpling (Large sheng jian bao)	340
fruits/fruits slices水果	297
Fried Cuttlefish Soup / sautéed octopus/ stir fried octopus, squids 生炒花枝	209
十全排骨	175
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

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◆ 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)>
　

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◆ night markets / Risks everywhere Black heart addictives harm the whole Taiwan, including almost all night markets, small eat shops, restaurants(幾近全淪陷) Taiwanese government lacks of ability to handle this food-scare (<今周刊Business Today>健康生活專刊04, Sept. 2013)
small-eat street-foods	j addictives	why dangerous ?
(大腸包小腸) Small Sausage in Large Sausage	nitrite, NIT,NaNO2(亞硝酸鹽)	Used to add red-color addictive for sausage, Eating too many may cause cancer增加紅色並防腐，過量食用恐致癌
(珍珠奶茶)Pearl milk tea、(青蛙下蛋粉圓)Tapioca (ball) tea	(防腐劑)Preservative	Eating too many increases burden of liver and kidney, and may cause cancer過量食用增肝腎負擔，恐致癌
(炸雞排)Deep fried chicken breast、grilled chicken breast (烤雞排)	(嫩精) Tenderizer	Used for soften the texture, Eating too many may lead to cardiopalmus, lips numb/tingle, temporary ageusia/loss of taste sense (心悸、唇麻、短暫失味覺)
(現切水果)fresh cut fruits、(糖葫蘆)sugar coated Chinese hawthorn fruit	(糖精)Saccharin、 (甘精)glargine	Eating too many hurts liver and alimentary canal or may cause urinary bladder cancer過量甘精傷肝與消化道、過量糖精致膀胱癌危險
(泰國蝦、烤蝦、蝦仁煎) Thailand shrimp, grilled shrimp, shrimp prawn Omelet	(硼砂)borax	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, 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。)

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Taiwan
food

◆ <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/)".

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◆ 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 !

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3. Taiwanese food - all you can eat buffet
SET TV news ( 三立新聞網), 9-14-2018 "a clever chef revealed the cruel truth of all-you-can-eat-buffet in Taiwan": 「You turn into a loser (虧本) as soon as you step in buffet restaurant ! 」―― Why ? You will see all about in this website !

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. Apple Daily (10-31-2015): Euro. style all you can eat buffet turned into "Cash Cow".

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.

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pic. : No.1 "5 star hotel buffet" (Chinese version), on US Google search engine, 7-16-2019.
　

pic.: No.1 "5 star hotel buffet" (Chinese version), "5 star buffet in Taiwan" (Eng. version) on Yahoo search engine, 9-3-2018.

5 star hotel all you can eat buffet in Taiwan

ref. to Apple Daily (蘋果日報), 10-28-2018; Liberty Times(自由時報), 10-13-2018; United Daily(聯合報), 9-21-2018; China Times (中國時報) 10-20-2018,2-3-2018;
UDN(聯合報), 9-23-2017, and dining experiences, interviews, ~ 3-13-2019, etc

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:

spanner crabs and crabs; mussels (

黑貽貝與孔雀), beef a-bu-ri-su-shi(握壽司),assembled abalone(貴妃鮑)

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);

deep fried shrimp, and

、deep fried 4-season beans (四季豆)、corn flour (玉米粉);

crabs: Three-spotted Crab (三點蟹)、Spanner/Crimson (旭蟹)、white shrimp (熟白蝦) ;

rib (牛小排) and prime steak in dinner only, lunch only serves roast beef

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

NTD 980 , NTD 1280

afternoon tea buffet about NTD 600;

lunch 900、dinner 1080;
weekend lunch 1100、dunner 1180

Mon~Thur lunch, dinner NTD 1590;
Fri, Sat, Sun 1690

Mon~Fri lunch 1090; Mon~Thu, sun, dinner 1290;
Fri, Sat dinner 1390

lunch 1180、dinner 1380;
weekend lunch 1480、dunner1480

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

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.

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4. Transportation

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; ps2: CTV 20:30pm, 10-22-2018 : speed 140km, should be 80km or 65 km)
                        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 biaxial chassis 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, 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 … 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 accidents frequently 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 with carbon 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

●

5. entertainment/recreation services in Taiwan
Taiwan is using a "nude massage" advertisement to promote its tourism and for marketing Taiwan.

massage

◎ 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

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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.

Click to read Massages in Taiwan/ Chinese version , Taiwanese massage /English version.

prostitution

Apple Daily news (Dec. 25, 2014) reported that the percentage of those Taiwanese male aged above 20 visiting porn business (2.33 million men per yr. ,ps1) ranked world No.1 ( the next 5 are Spain, Australia, Norway, India, U.K.). The annual value of production of Taiwan's sex industry's is at least USD 200 million. But, according to the China Times (Jan. 17, 2015), the number of legal Taiwanese prostitutes is extremely small: Tai-Chung city 3 (avg. age 55), 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.
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erotic Thailand massage in Taiwan

foot massage in Taiwan HuaXi Street

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

pic courtesy UDN 5-5-2016 http://udn.com/news/story/7314/1673634-%E6%8C%89%E6%91%A9%E8%BE%A3%E5%A6%B9%E5%90%B8%E4%B8%AD%E6%9D%B1%E5%AE%A2%EF%BC%9F-%E8%A7%80%E5%85%89%E5%B1%80%EF%BC%9A%E6%9D%9C%E6%8B%9C%E5%AF%A9%E9%81%8E

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6. Sight-seeing in Taiwan Taiwan ads bet on attracting small-eaters, instead of sightseers.

228 Peace Monument for political massacre

Taiwanese Presidential Office Building

◎ 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 9-4-2019 shows Taiwan ranks No.87 in "Natural resources", No.58 in "Natural & cultural resources".

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.

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 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, somehow Business Insider (6-2015) still introduced some places for tourists:

◎ 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)

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7. Architectures in Taiwan

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.

UDN (聯合報) 10-23-2019: Taiwan is far behind in urban construction, in contrast, some metro in Asia always have astonishing architectures ... (brief)

◎ 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...

Sun Yat-sen Mem. Hall 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.

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8. Expenses
World Economic Forum (WEF) <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> released at 9-4-2019 shows Taiwan ranks No.78 in "price competitiveness".

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

☉

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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))

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.	Taiwan's tourists guidebook (pic. above) calls 5000 yrs treasures "Chinese Creativity" . 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 .....

Cultural & creative products
in National Palace Museum
(click for Chinese version)

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.

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10. Best-Buy Shopping: malls / outlet ― world best brand clothes in Taiwan .

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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).

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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	TaoYuan 中壢春德路189
MITSUI outlet park 三井林口 (Japanese style)	02-2606-8666	220 brands, Porsche Design, agnes b, Cath Kidston, Stayreal, les enphants, "山本耀司" , etc	New Taipei City 林口文化三路一段356
Leeco Taichung	04-2258-5166	Brand Off Tokyo, Arnold Palmer, Traveller, etc	TaiChung City 市政路480
Taichung 日曜天地	04-3611-2366	Coach, Roots, North face, Prada, Gucci, 150 brands	TaiChung City 自由路二段94
高雄義大	07-656-8100, 0800-656-800	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.

info. 2012
　

Taipei Leeco outlet : (02) 8792-6668,
   Eelan city outlet (爾本): (03) 932-8800, UNIQLO, 無印良品will be here.
   Taichung outlet (日曜) : (04)3611-2366,
   Taichung outlet (月眉): (04) 2558-2459,
   Kaohsiung outlet (義大) : (07)656-8100, Includes YSL, Gucci, etc

info. 2011
　

(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),

Levi's etc outlet : 8791-2449

Timberland & DATA outlet : 2791-4393

LEECO outlet (Roots, Boss, Samsonite, Rockport, Givenchy, Swatch, CERRUTI, Escada, Max Mara, Moschino, etc) : 8791-3745

a few other outlet stores are nearby.

(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.

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11. society security

● 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

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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

　

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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.

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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 accommodation and 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.

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◆ 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。)	林子堯	http://talk.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/1818692
The Liberty Times, 9-8-2016	Taiwan tourism dies without Chinese tourists? (中客不來觀光業會死？)	Taiwan needs self-criticism for lousy quality of tourism (沒品質自己要檢討)	陳沂	http://ent.ltn.com.tw/news/breakingnews/1820337
The China Times, 9-15-2016	Face the truth why the number of Chinese tourists decreased(<社論>面對陸客減少的真相)	a more serious alarm-bell sounds, Chinese society disguises Taiwan, against Taiwan, abandon Taiwan...	Editorial in chief	brief
The China Times, 9-7-2016	Wrong prescription for Taiwan tourism (觀策站/開錯藥方的觀光轉型政策)	Please no more allowance policy to rescue Taiwan tourism, it's immoral and useless (千萬拜託不要再搞什麼補貼政策...。這樣不僅不道德，也對扭曲的台灣觀光環境沒有幫助。)	包正豪/淡江大學全球政治經濟學系主任	http://opinion.chinatimes.com/20160907004995-262110
The China Times, 9-9-2016	short-term bailout won't save Taiwan tourism industry ( 短期紓困難讓觀光業質變)	Taiwan should do better in Marketing Segment by internet (陸客消費方式也從單純滿足購物欲望轉往體驗型消費，因此如何藉由線上旅遊平台精準招徠分眾客源...)	楊家豪/台灣經濟研究院產經資料庫產業分析師	http://opinion.chinatimes.com/20160909006287-262105
United Daily system, 2016-09-09	Slogans won't rescue Taiwan tourism (口號喊一喊觀光就會活？)	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, convenient environment 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)	高洺塗/實踐大學觀光學系講師	http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20160909/37376340/
Apple Daily, 2016-09-09	Taiwan tourism under emergency treatment (搶救觀光業)	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)	辣蘋果：余艾苔	http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20160909/37376308/
Apple Daily, 2016-09-09	Analyse & comment Taiwan tourism in crisis (陷入危機的－觀光「慘」業評析)	Politics cross Taiwan strait is not the only, truly and objective reason, Taiwan tourism needs transformation (若全歸咎於政治，恐難理出真正且客觀要因。其次是藉機促成觀光產業轉型...)	王維堅／企業顧問	http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20160909/945385/
The Liberty Times, 9-9-2016	Taiwan ready for tourism age? (觀光時代來了台灣準備好了嗎？)	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/1

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Taiwan tourism & travel 台湾の観光&旅行 ★ The sites group ranks No. 1 : 2017~18, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010~12 ★

★ Top since 1998 ★

home brief Taiwan TW FB human rights tour personality food medical restaurants women speech erotic watching judiciary police corruption foreign labor prosecutors soft power death penalty happiness housing avia image creativity night markets oppression&persecution

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int'l views restaurants night-markets buffet transportation massage entertainment natural beauties architectures expenses art&culture heritage outlet/shopping criminal rate

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	country	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.

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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.

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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)。

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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)

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ps 3

103年來臺旅客按目的分
Visitor Arrivals by Purpose of Visit, 2014

居住地
　

合計
Total

業務
Business

觀光
Pleasure

探親
Visit
Relatives

會議
Conference

求學
Study

展覽
Exhibition

醫療
Medical Treatment

其他
Others

百分比（%）

100.00

7.77

72.57

3.97

0.64

0.57

0.13

0.62

13.73

data: Tourism Bureau, Taiwan

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ps 4

Taiwan travel & tourism balance sheet / 2015 Q2 unit: 0.10 billion USD
Yr.	Receipt	Payment/Expense	Balance
2011	27.51	24.90	Surplus / favourable balance 2.61
2012	29.20	26.07	Surplus / favourable balance 3.13
2013	31.30	30.75	Surplus / favourable balance 0.55
2014	37.19	36.09	Surplus / favourable balance 1.10
2015	35.92	40.90	Deficit / unfavourable balance 4.98

data: Taiwan Central Bank, Liberty Times 9-5-2015

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Deficit in Balance between income and expenditure in tourism for three consecutive qtrs / Liberty Times 1-3-2016

Taiwan travel & tourism balance sheet 2014 ~ 2015 unit: 0.10 billion USD
Yr.	Balance
2014 Q3	Deficit 3.21
2014 Q4	Surplus 2.05
2015 Q1	Deficit 0.76
2015 Q2	Deficit 7.08
2015 Q3	Deficit 4.78

data: Taiwan Central Bank, Liberty Times 1-3-2016

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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」)	http://www.cna.com.tw/topic/newstopic/393-4/201301190013-1.aspx
● The China Times (中國時報), 10-6-2015, editor-in-chief ● CNA (中央社)2013/01/19	"Not coming Taiwan is a lifelong regret, having come Taiwan regrets for the rest of our life" (不來終身遺憾，來了遺憾終身」 )	http://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20151006000523-260109
● The China Times , 中國時報電子報, 5-5-2015, 旺報(記者林瑞益綜合報導)	「上車睡覺、下車尿尿、停車買藥、回家丟掉、下次還要」幾乎是陸客來台旅遊團的通則

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ps 7

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

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ps 8

TVBS 12-19-2015 20:56 : tourists revisit rate / Chinese 11.08%, Japanese 50%, Macau & Hong Kong 70.11%.

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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

https://www.roughguides.com/destinations/asia/taiwan/things-miss/

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/

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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

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ps 18

Pic. top: Ranking No.1 on google by English keyword "comment Taiwan restaurants" ,

2-2-2018, 1-10-2017, Sept. 2, 2015.
Pic. : Ranking No.1 on Yahoo by Chinese keyword "comment Taiwan foods"
or "comment Taiwan delicacies", 1-10-2017, Sept. 2, 2015.

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pic: This websites-group was ranked
No.1 by keyword "understand Taiwan"
on Google, 1-11-2018, 9-8-2017,1-6-2017

related studies: TAIWAN

pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword "comment Taiwan"
on Google, 1-11-2018, 9-8-2017, 4-4-2017, 12-4-2016, 11-25-2016
top ranking : review Taiwan 1-11-2018

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This sites-group was ranked No.1 by the keyword

"understand Taiwan" on Bing,
tested at 1-11-2018, 9-8-2017, 5-8-2017

This sites-group was ranked both No.1 and No. 2
by "comment Taiwan" on Bing,
tested at 1-11-2018, 9-8-2017, 5-8-2017

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◆ this sites' top rankings :

Pic. No.1 "comment Taiwan tour" on US google,

tests at 3-5-2018.

ps: upper 3 are ads.

● Pic. No.1 "comment Taiwan travel" on google,

3-5-2018, 1-27-2018, 9-9-2017, 1-10-2017, 6-6-2016

Pic: This webpage was ranked No.1 on US Google
by keyword "comment Taiwan travel" or "comment Taiwan tourism",
tests at 3-5-2018.

ps: below is Taiwan Travel Rules by Washington Post

● Pic. : Ranking No.1 on Google by English keyword
"comment Taiwan tourism" at 3-5-2018, 1-27-2018,

9-9-2017, 1-10-2017, 6-6-2016, 11-9-2015 .
　

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-2015.

Taiwan tourism & travel 台湾の観光&旅行 ★ The sites group ranks No. 1 : 2017~19, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010~12 ★

★ Top since 1998 ★

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