Visiting Keelung to See the Yellow Rubber Duck — The Nearest Restroom Is Still 300 Meters Away

▲ The Yellow Rubber Duck will arrive at Keelung Marine Plaza on December 21. It has now been found that the limited space is leading to a shortage of portable toilets. The image above is a composite. (Photo / Eastern TV News)

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

The Yellow Rubber Duck is set to arrive at Keelung Marine Plaza on December 21. Originally, plans called for setting up a total of 500 portable toilets around the exhibition area to provide convenience for visitors. However, the Keelung City Government has now discovered that due to the limited space available for duck-viewing, the nearest restroom is still 300 meters away at the Dong San and Dong Si docks — making it far from convenient for visitors.

The Yellow Rubber Duck will remain at Keelung Marine Plaza from December 21 until February 1, 2014. Since most of the areas around the exhibition site are roads, the space available for visitors is inherently limited. Fortunately, the floating platform displaying the Yellow Rubber Duck can rotate 360 degrees, so the cute duck can be seen from anywhere around Marine Plaza.

%The marine plaza depicted in the image is where the Yellow Rubber Duck will be displayed. The surrounding area is compact, and the exhibition takes place in Keelung. (Image / Sourced fromThe Yellow Rubber Duck’s Official Keelung Fan Page)

Currently, these limited spaces not only have to accommodate the massive influx of duck-viewing visitors but also need to set aside room for portable toilets. According to the Keelung City Government’s plans, the Dong San and Dong Si docks — the area expected to host the largest number of portable toilets —are still 300 meters away from the main duck-viewing exhibition area. Moreover, due to limited space, only 24 toilets can be installed there. The Liuhuo Parking Lot, which is 3 kilometers away from the viewing area, can only accommodate 10 portable toilets. In total, the 34 portable toilets are insufficient to meet the needs of the potentially large crowds.。

According to a report by Apple Daily, the Keelung City Government has decided to negotiate with nearby restaurants and businesses to lend out a total of 604 “friendly toilets” for public use. However, this could affect the operations of the shops, and many have stated: “We’re not even considering cooperating!” They criticized the measure as being overly demanding.

Aside from transportation and environmental maintenance, managing restroom facilities in Keelung is also one of the key challenges the city government must address moving forward.