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Going on a Sea Discovery Tour: A New English Walking Route in Anping provided by Bureau of Tourism, Tainan City Government

Posted Date:2022-09-15

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An additional free English walking route is now available in Tainan! In order to break into the international tourism market in the post-epidemic era, the Tourism Bureau of Tainan City Government launched "Tainan City English Walking Tour Service Improvement Plan”, which includes finding more outstanding English tour guides through recruitment and training courses and providing a new English walking route in Anping, “Sea Discovery Tour”, which will bring international tourists a brand-new travel experience as well as the chance to know the oceanic story of Taiwan they may have never heard before. “Tainan is a major tourism city of Taiwan. For the expected recovery of international tourism market after the opening of border, Tainan City Government has been relentlessly training tourism talents to increase the capability of receiving more international visitors with the hope to bring more tourists to this city. The year 2024 would be the 400th year after the Dutch East India Company built Fort Zeelandia in Tainan, so the city government is now making high-standard preparations with the goal to show both domestic and international tourists the present, past and future of Tainan from different perspectives, demonstrating its charisma nurtured by its festinating history.”, Huang Wei-che, mayor of Tainan City, said.

The English tour guide training course for Sea Discovery Tour provided by Tourism Bureau of Tainan City Government recruits citizens with great English skills and enormous enthusiasm for narration, equipping them with the knowledge and expertise that a professional English tour guide should possess through a series of training courses, such as English Speaking and Writing Enhancement, Local Literature and History, Narration Skills and field trips. Sea Discovery Tour will begin with Eternal Golden Castle, followed by 1661 Taiwan Warship Museum, Anping Fish Harbor, Lin Mo Niang Park, AnPing HangZhouDian Temple and Cahamu Hall and Indigenous Park, which are all tourist attractions of historical and cultural significance, and then end up with “Greetings from the Whale”, a public art piece that has become a new check-in hotspot of Tainan city. With qualified English-speaking tour guides trained by Bureau of Tourism, foreigners could learn about the origin of Taiwan, the religious beliefs of Mazu and Wang Ye, Taiwanese temple religion and our indigenous culture through a two-hour walking tour, during which they would see the important status and features of Tainan city.

Director of Tourism Bureau of Tainan City, Guo Zhenhui stated that the Tourism Bureau has been not only placing advertisement overseas, but also training talents for tourism industry domestically, with the hope to create a friendly environment that would bring more international tourists to this city. We expect Tainan city to be the first choice for international visitors to Taiwan after the entry restrictions are fully lifted. Director Guo further stated that it is of great significance to launch the English walking route in Anping. As an island country, the history and development of Taiwan has always been closely connected to the ocean, such as the Dutch colonization, Koxinga’s development of Taiwan, the following migration waves across the strait and the later commercial activities as well as local religion establishment. Anping was the first town built at that time, which served as the gate to connect Taiwan with history and development mentioned above. Sea Discovery Tour will walk along Anping Port, showing foreigners the first city of Taiwan from the perspective of the ocean, with which they could have a better understanding of Taiwan's religious culture and the history of the Austronesian language group. We are confident that this would be a brand-new experience for international travelers.

In order to provide English-friendly tour services to international travelers, the Bureau of Tourism has been making English walking tour since 2015. There have been two routes: the Classic Tour that will walk you through historic sites such as Confucius Temple, National Museum of Taiwan Literature, Tiangong Temple, Wu Family Garden and Hayashi Department Store; the Local Life Tour that will show you the vibrant life of Tainan city through places like Tua Market, Hai'an Road and Shennong Street; now we have the third one, Sea Discovery Tour in Anping. All three routes are led by qualified English-speaking tour guides trained by the Bureau of Tourism, providing two-hour guided tours at fixed times every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Each tour is limited to a maximum of 5 participants. Relevant information including routes, meeting points, timetable and tour guides are available on the English version of Travel Tainan. Our English walking tour service has been offered to more than 1,000 people from 44 countries, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey…etc. This service has been highly praised by its participants: "I would like to express my highest gratitude to my tour guide. With her help, I could quickly understand the history of Taiwan, especially the history of its art, which encourages me to come back here again.”, said in a Thank-you card from an Indian tourist who joined the Classic Tour before. Another visitor from Canada also commented that "The tour guide is enthusiastic. Thanks to her, we could have an in-depth understanding of Tainan’s history and culture.” Sea Discovery Tour has been open for reservation from June 20th of this year. All citizens are welcome and encouraged to invite foreign friends to join our tours!

 

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