For Tourism, Yunlin Pushes for the Hushan National Scenic Area

(Taiwan Business News) Yunlin is pushing for the "Hushan National Scenic Area," hoping to follow the development model of Sun Moon Lake and combine it with the natural resources of Gukeng's Zhanghu, Caoling and Shibi, the purple butterfly ecological corridor in Linnei, the Pingding tea plantations, the Linbei tobacco barn industry, as well as the Gukeng Green Tunnel, Huashan and Hebao coffee industry, to drive the overall tourism industry in Yunlin and create 20,000 jobs.

The Yunlin County Government has proposed a practical implementation plan for the Hushan Reservoir area, including the Qianshan Park, the reservoir area trail system, service points, a scenic suspension bridge and the Meilin Creek waterside green corridor and other related construction. The required funding is about 210 million yuan, and it is expected to be completed in 2 years. In the future, Hushan Reservoir will become a bridge connecting Sun Moon Lake and the Alishan National Scenic Area, making the Provincial Highway 3 tourism system more complete.

Yunlin County Magistrate Su Chih-fen stated that with subsidies from the Central Region Water Resources Office, the planning concepts can be gradually implemented to develop the overall tourism of the Hushan Reservoir area, actively change the lives of nearby settlements, and achieve all-round "mutual good" results with a humanistic spirit, industrial characteristics, educational experience, community care, ecological resource protection, heritage site education, and leisure and recreation, rich in knowledge and cultural and creative industry content.

Yunlin County also has tourism resources of fine mountains, fine waters and fine scenery, and the completion of Hushan Reservoir will be a new opportunity to promote Yunlin's tourism development. It is hoped that the "Hushan National Scenic Area" will bring increased tourism growth and achieve the goal of doubling tourist numbers. Peng Tzu-cheng, Director of the Yunlin County Urban and Rural Development Department, emphasized that if Sun Moon Lake is taken as the target, and estimates are based on Caoling's current annual visitor volume of 277,000, then after the establishment of the national scenic area, it will have the opportunity to reach 1.6 million visitors, create a local economic benefit of 3.9 billion yuan, and further create 20,000 jobs, bringing a greater contribution to the development of Yunlin's mountain areas.