Vying for a spot among the New Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Yushan makes it into the top 28

By Chi Bing-hui, compiled and reported

When most people think of the world’s seven natural wonders, they often imagine places like Mount Everest, Lake Baikal, or Yellowstone National Park. The international voting campaign for the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” (New 7 Wonder of Nature, abbreviated as N7W), launched by the Swiss New7Wonders Foundation, has now reached its final selection stage. Taiwan’s Yushan Mountain has overcome numerous challenges and has been shortlisted in the final 28. Taiwanese citizens are encouraged to vote online to help showcase the beauty of Yushan to the world.

The “New 7 Wonders of Nature” are divided into seven categories: mountains, islands, lakes, forests, caves, landscapes, and seascapes. Among them, Taiwan’s Yushan Mountain, after going through three years and four phases of evaluation, has now made it to the final 28. Other finalists include the famous Dead Sea, Amazon River, Grand Canyon (USA), Maldives, and Italy’s Mount Vesuvius, making the competition extremely intense.

According to the latest announcement from the organizing committee, online voting will close at 11:11:11 Greenwich Mean Time on November 11, 2011, after which the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” will be officially announced. To promote the voting campaign, Yushan National Park Headquarters has specially released an animated short film featuring Taiwan’s Formosan black bear as the lead character, rallying all members of the Yushan family to cast their votes for Yushan. The public is welcome to invite friends and family to vote online and cheer for Taiwan together.

“New 7 Wonders of Nature” voting campaign: n7w.ysnp.gov.tw/movie/bear.html