Let's Bike Taiwan 2009

About 150 people celebrated "Let's Bike Taiwan" today at Sun Moon Lake, a resort destination in central Taiwan. Taiwan officials, working with the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and Giant Bicycles, are working to promote cycling as a healthy and environmentally friendly activity on the island and are opening bike facilities all over Taiwan. Over 1,000 km of bike trails are now available to ride on throughout Taiwan.

Visitors traveled in tour buses to Sun Moon Lake, where they rented bikes from a brand new company owned Giant Bicycle store. Everything from inexpensive mountain bikes to the top of the line Giant TCR Advanced is available for rent.



The festivities began with a grand opening ceremony for the Yeutan Bikeway, a bike trail that connects the west side of the lake over the dam to the eastern side of Sun Moon Lake, bypassing the stretch of Highway 21 south of the lake.



From the bikeway entrance, the cyclists rode 4.5 km into Checheng and along the Xianshan Bikeway, where everybody stopped at Meihe Garden to take in the views and sample several varieties of tea. The Sun Moon Lake area is the tea growing region of Taiwan.

Everybody then continued another 2.5 km uphill to stop at Fleur de Chine resort, where they boarded boats for a lake cruise, then returned to Lalu Hotel to conclude the festivities with a 10 course meal.



The cheesiness of the whole thing was amazing fun. China Airlines flight attendants did a dance involving bikes [watch for video soon from Bike Hugger], us Americans were all interviewed by Chinese television, the local girls went crazy when a boy band showed up to promote cycling, and a great time was had by all.

See also:

• Bike Hugger meets Giant VP James Hu.
  
• Let's Bike Taiwan official site [English]