Making the International Tourism Island:Regional Creation and Sustainable Development in Heping Island and its Surroundings
Originating from Heping: In recent years, Keelung has transformed from an international trading port to an international cruise port, and the fishery of nearby fishing villages has declined. These situational changes changes reflect that Keelung’s tourism industry must be upgraded and the declining fishing villages must be revitalized. This is already a key issue and demand of the local area. Heping Island is located in the northeast of Keelung Port, and it is the island closest to Taiwan. It has beautiful sea-eroded terrain, mountain and sea landscapes, marine sports and leisure resources, as well as rich international historical stories and cultural heritage, spanning from the prehistoric era to the great nautical era. The unique natural and cultural potential of Heping Island-inspired our vision of "making Heping Island an international tourist island".
Inception of a Dream: We have formed a cross-field team, with local creation, sustainable development, and talent cultivation as the main axis, and regard cultural assets, tourism, sports and leisure, cultural and creative design, digital reproduction, etc. as mutual supporting and benefiting elements for the local creation of Heping Island. Accordingly, these five aspects are expected to be constructed as an integrated plan for the following purposes: combining humanities and technology; connecting industry, government, academic and social resources; shaping the humanistic image of Heping Island; and promoting marine tourism, leisure, cultural and creative characteristics Industry; enhancing the cultural self-confidence and identity of the residents on the island; boosting their spontaneous participation and effective transformation energy; and facilitating their path to sustainable development.
Steadily Realizing the Dream of Heping: Sub-project 1 collected cultural assets left on the Peace Island by the Basai, Han, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Ryukyu people. On the other hand, as parts of the Sub-project, the Salvador Fort, the monastery, and the eight-foot gate railway were reproduced. We lead the students in the preservation and promotion activities of intangible cultural assets: assisting the island’s Beiguan music group "Deyitang" to pass on the skills and matchmaking performances, record the fishing methods and fishing gear of Heping Island. These were converted into cultural and creative products. Also, we filmed the folklore activity "Xelin Temple Royal Boat Patrolling Around the River on Sea" as well as organized cultural and creative workshops for activation and promotion purposes.
Sub-project 2 consolidated the tourism resources of Heping Island with marine education and tourism as the professional background, and led students into Heping Island to assist in local development. In a time span of more than 2 years, the Sub-project held 62 activities, participated in 88 meetings, led students into the field 57 times, produced Chinese and English navigation brochures and manuals, produced 29 related videos, assisted 20 local businesses in marketing and operating, held many field research activities for travel industries and teachers, and acting as a bridge between the government and the public to assist in the construction of local software and hardware, etc. All these efforts have been recognized by most people inside and outside the island.
Based on marine leisure tourism, Sub-project 3 planned a series of marine leisure education thematic programs with the combination of close-to-sea experiences (such as canoes and SUP) and marine education activities to provide more than 3,000 people with the opportunity to have the close-to-sea experience each year. In addition, through a large number of experience activities to cultivate marine sports professionals and planning powerboat sailing training and IRB (inflatable rescue boat) certification programs, it is expected that the Keelung Heping Island area will be developed into marine leisure sports hub through the integration of marine leisure sports.
Sub-project 4 took the approach of participatory design. It gathered industry producers, local residents, humanities scholars and design scholars to analyze and adjust the content of the existing Heping Island’s featured industries. The project then improves the industry image by high-quality product branding and developing new extended products. We invited local residents and industry professionals on and around Heping Island to give lectures about their industry conditions and needs, and led students to do field researches and then guide students to think, name and design-related cultural and creative products. The results have been publicly displayed at the campus and Heping Island Park. This mode is expected to be used to guide students in developing cultural and creative products for the landscape, culture and humanistic history of Heping Island.
Sub-project 5 built a platform for the digital reproduction of Heping Island’s local culture. It reproduced the temporal and spatial evolution and life culture of Heping Island’s past and present with images and text. These contents were collected and presented with digital technology and web media to achieve the benefits of cultural preservation, information openness, conducive to inheritance, innovative applications and local marketing. It used the image of "San Salvador City" as the virtual site of the "Image Story Gallery". Visitors can click to enter to view the corresponding graphic content. It brought together research texts, historical scene images and interactive navigation technologies to show the historical development trajectories, spatial landscape changes, and life and culture integration.
Toward a Sustainable Heping: This project took local creation, sustainable development, and talent cultivation as the main axis, taking into account local cultural heritage, promotion of characteristic industries, and community participation. It is implemented from five aspects in an integrated way. Being unprecedented in the history of Heping Island, the project brought about refreshingness and openness to the place. It also echoes the United Nations sustainable development goals of talent cultivation (SDGs4), employment promotion (SDGs8), urban sustainability (SDGs11), and sustainable production (SDGs12). It shows our commitment to the sustainable development of Heping Island, and it is a direction worthy of moving forward.
University characteristic Startup Stage Project
Keelung City
National Taiwan Ocean University
Further reading
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