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Source: Taipei newspapers Dec. 8, 2010
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| Taiwan - Touch Your Heart |
In an article published in Travel 2, a Dutch language bi-monthly magazine published in Belgium, journalist Corinne Leunens praised Taiwan as a beautiful island that had everything. Leunens wrote that she could not understand why foreigners did not regard Taiwan as a hot travel destination, adding it seemed unfair.
In her article, Leunens wrote that Taiwan and other small islands such as Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu enjoyed abundant tourism resources.
Leunens also wrote that it was easy for everybody to feel the dynamism in Taiwan’s big cities such as Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. Especially, Taiwan was one of the most densely populated places in the world with 639 people per square kilometer, and there were over 14 million motorcycles and approximately 7 million cars on the island, she added.
Leunens wrote that Taipei was a city with outstanding public safety and it was safe for people to walk on the streets at night. Furthermore, she noted that it was difficult to find a public transportation system anywhere in the world that was as clean, safe, and cheap as the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) System.
Leunens wrote that she was deeply impressed by Taiwan’s natural beauty. She said that the Taiwan government had early on realized that Taiwan was blessed with abundant natural resources, so it had set up 7 national parks, 20 nature preserves, 6 natural conservation areas, 17 forest conservation areas, and 33 wild life natural habitat areas.
Leunens wrote, “Taiwan is a place that has everything,” and told her readership that when the Portuguese first discovered Taiwan 【for the Europeans】in the 16th century, they named the island “Ilha Formosa,” which means beautiful island in Portuguese, because they could not think of any other name that could better describe Taiwan.
From: http://www.kmt.org.tw/english/page.aspx?type=article&mnum=112&anum=8960