TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Gathered on the coast of Xiaoliuqiu, these are not tourists. They are rather volunteers, reaching into the deep crevices between rocks, picking up garbage. These coastal cleanup volunteers are local residents. Bed and breakfast owners, watersport coaches, and restaurant employees, all joined hands together to help clean up around the coast.
And hundreds of people participated this year, using all the tools they can find, even canoes, and stand up paddle boards, to help pick up trash on the waters, and along the coast. This is said to be the largest-scale beach cleanup in history for the area, according to organizers.
Xiaoliuqiu has become one of the most popular domestic tourist attraction in recent years. And tens of thousands of people visit the island during the weekends. However large numbers of tourists tend to equate with a large amount of waste produced. With tourism on the rise for the area, the marine ecology in turn, has been severely damaged.
The government has announced that starting next year, at Shanfu Harbor and Yuchengwei, two ecological landscape areas, visitors will have to pay a fee of NT$60, hoping that this may help cut down on the crowd. A tourist said, "I think it is very reasonable. The environment needs to be protected, or needs to be managed, so there will be some costs for management."
With the fees set to launch next year, this will be the first step in seeing if paying a price is effective for protecting the environment, and controlling the quality of tourist. As for visitors of all areas, always make sure to respect the places you visit, and remember to be environmentally conscious and friendly, in order to help maintain Taiwan's beauty.