Gaomei Wetlands has been selected as the sightseeing spot everyone must visit in the lifetime by the international website. Gaomei tourist center and public 69 parking lot started to have the test run today (21st). Director Yu-ling Huang, Construction Bureau, Taichung City Government, said, by way of the involvement from the private sector to attract more private investment, we will make Gaomei Wetlands tourist center and public 69 parking lot to be able to provide the people more innovative and active public facilities. It’s expected to offer upgraded services to the people when they visit Gaomei Wetlands in the future.

Construction Bureau today conducted the opening ceremony of test run at the lawn in front of the Gaomei Wetlands tourist center so the City Government, Deputy Secretary General, Hsien-yi Lee was accompanied by Director of Construction Bureau, Yu-ling Huang, Chief of Qingshui District Ming-chang Chang to attend this event. Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker of Legislative Yuan, Chi-chang Tsai, Councilor Dian-chun Yang, Li-ren Wang, Li-min Yang and the President of Pao-mei Co. Ltd, Yen-chang Lan were there to witness the ceremony.

Deputy Secretary General Lee said, Taichung has established the project of「Daan at North and Gaomei at South」 with 「twin stars for coast line 」 which is a new blue strip area as the tourism corridor. The project has successfully attracted many private companies to invest in Taichung. As Gaomei Wetlands has been selected as the sightseeing spot everyone must visit in the lifetime internationally, it’s another key factor to attract the involvement of the private sector.

The private institutes have invested NT$20 million to expand and renovate the related constructions. Also, they have hired the local residents to play the role as the professional guides to explain to and help the visitors for administration related works. The 8-day-of C.C.K. Gaomei summer ocean music festival is running now so there are many booths for cultural creative products selling and greeting the visitors to come to experience the natural ecosystem, ocean breeze and beautiful scenery.

Director Huang, Construction Bureau, said, the tourist center was approved to be built with the shared efforts of the City Government, former Speaker of Taichung City Council Ching-ton Chang and Deputy speaker of Council Ching-jao Chang. It’s completed by the Construction Bureau with the budget of NT$360 million for more than 2 years. The tourist center is a two stories of building with a special architectural design and now it’s a featured building on Taichung coast line. There is a platform for scenery view on the roof of the building to allow people to get on to enjoy the sunset and the pinwheels at Gaomei Wetlands; also, it’s a good place to see stars at the night.

Aside the tourist center, there is the artificial ecological recovery wetlands with natural water flow induction. There are many mudskippers and fiddler crabs living in the well maintained habitat environment. People can see the firebugs flying closely and the space under the slope is used as the ecological exhibition hall, tourist information counter, parent-child interactive showroom and restrooms etc. Besides, there are amphitheater and ecological showroom inside of the tourist center with the professional guide service to have the visitors understand more about the local ecosystem and culture. Some light meals and cultural products services are provided on site as well.

Director Huang mentioned, in order to allow the huge visitor flows to Gaomei Wetlands during the high season of summer vacation, the tourist center has started the test run at the first floor from 21st July. Meanwhile, there is the farmer market at public 69 parking lot to provide the local farmers a selling point to facilitate the local economic activities. The「Public 69」parking lot started the test run with tourist center new open which was expected to relieve the parking issues and the demands in Gaomei Wetlands. The parking lot has two parts, South and North area, to provides 550 parking spaces for small cars and 54 spaces for coaches In addition to 210 spaces for motorcycles and 118 spaces for bicycles. Also, there is shuttle service provided for those people to transfer between Gaomei Wetlands and parking lot.

The other restaurants or coffee shops will start to operate by the end of the year so the overall services will be completed. By that time, the domestic and international tourists to visit Gaomei to enjoy both knowledgeable and sentimental trip in depth. For more information about Gaomei Wetlands and the service center, please click on the video link for more details.