Send off the Sunset and Welcome the Dawn – Covering Taiwan’s Nine Top Scenic Spots

By MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Life Network Editorial Department, compiled and reported
 
This year’s New Year’s Day offers a three-day long holiday, with various regions across Taiwan competing to offer countdown and dawn-welcoming events. How do you choose the best spot to bid farewell to the last sunset and greet the arrival of the new year? The Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has specially compiled information on activities such as sunset watching, New Year’s Eve celebrations, and dawn welcoming held at nine scenic and beautiful national scenic areas. It also recommends nearby attractions for side trips, hoping that everyone can take advantage of the first long holiday of 2016 to plan their travel itinerary—bid farewell to the sunset, welcome the dawn, and make new hopes for the new year.

The Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications stated that there are activities to send off the old and welcome the new across Taiwan and its outlying islands. If you want to bid farewell to the last sunset of 2015, you can choose to go tothe Beimen Salt Fields in the Yunlin–Chiayi–Tainan Coastal National Scenic Area, where you can enjoy a gratitude music feast and send off the final rays of the 2015 sunset with a thankful heart, bidding adieu to the past. Alternatively, you can choose to go up the mountains or out to sea to join New Year’s Eve events.The highest-altitude New Year’s Eve celebration in Taiwan takes place in Lishan, where apart from enjoying enthusiastic indigenous dances, you can also plan a soak in the hot springs of Guanguan to wash away the hustle and bustle and welcome the new year. You may also choose to attend the Donggang New Year’s Eve party in Pingtung, savoring Donggang delicacies while enjoying performances and experiencingthe scenic beauty of Dapeng Bay National Scenic Areaand its lake views.

In addition to sunset watching and New Year’s Eve events, dawn welcoming activities are also held in six national scenic areas. In the east, you can go tothe gravel beach of Sanxiantaibeside the rock dawn stage, where live performance bands combine lights with varying rhythms and hues to create different atmospheres, radiating even stronger vitality as you welcome the first ray of happiness and success on the main island together. In the north, you can take the TRA Dawn Train toFulong Beach in the Northeast Coast National Scenic Areato join the Dawn Concert, then explore nearby attractions including the Old Caoling Circular Bike Ride, a hike along the Sandiao Cape Lighthouse Trail, and a New Year blessing trip to Lingjiu Mountain.

In central Taiwan, you can head toGolden Dragon Mountain in Sun Moon Lake, waiting amid the clouds and mountain ridges for the dawn to break and welcome the new year, with exciting performances such as the Morning Chime Concert and Natural Celestial Music. In southern Taiwan, you can take the Taiwan Good To Go bus toAlishanto join the “Sunrise Impression Concert,” featuring performances on “bamboo instruments” inspired by Alishan, as everyone “welcomes the dawn and builds dreams.” The main act, the Tsing Hua Philharmonic Orchestra, will then deliver a high-altitude, high-quality, high-standard “three-high” Sunrise Impression Concert. Alternatively, you can go toErliau in Tainan Cityto welcome the lowest-altitude dawn, standing on the excellent vantage point of the Sunrise Viewing Platform, listening to performances by the Ten Drums Art Percussion Group, and greeting the first light of dawn amid inspiring and hopeful drumbeats. As for the outlying islands, you can choose to go tothe Dongyin Lighthouse in Matsuto attend the flag-raising ceremony and welcome the new year and watch the sunrise, accompanied by the scenery of this national second-class century-old lighthouse and the beautiful Fu Zheng Beach.