Sometimes, translating a place or a word is not easy to explain its real meaning or one' s thoughts. How to choose a word becomes a critical issue in the translation process. Beautiful Bay sounded like it would be a really beautiful place for me to visit when I first heard Beautiful Bay. But after I searched for information and detail about it , I found out it was not a beautiful place but ugly to me. In fact, Beautiful Bay is a hotel name which was built illegally at Sanyuan Bay on the east coast north of Taitung city.
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| Driving on the east coast highway 11 near Dulan village, Beautiful Bay hotel was very obvious sitting next to the highway. I was very curious about the beach where the hotel was located. I tried to find a road to reach the beach since the hotel blocked the access. A local resident pointed his finger to the north to show me that there was a road; however it didn't do any good because I found it was a small and narrow road. I asked my husband to park our car and waited for me on the road side. |
The Amis tribe calls Sanyuan Bay "Fudafudak" which means vast sand storms along the beach. Some marine experts found there was a new species of coral reef which only exist in this area in the world and more than 100 species of other coral reefs beneath the water. Because of the development of the resort and other recreational facilities, the coral reefs and other marine ecology were damaged. Photos of the coral reef, please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teia/5817033976/in/set-72157626926206390/
In 2004, the Taitung government ignored the environmental protection law and signed a 50 year land leasing contract with the developer for solving its budget deficit problem. The contract allowed the developer to build the resort on the 6 hectares sand beach which was in an environmental protection area. The developer would pay only NT$ 30,000 or US$ 1,100 per month and 2% royalty fees to be allowed to build and operate the resort. The room rate in the resort would be around NT$ 10-20 thousands per night. The public would also have to pay an entree fee to visit the beach.
In the beginning of the construction, the tribal people, the residents, and the artists protested against the developer. Their efforts failed because of the powerful corporation and the authority of the county government; however, their continuous actions won more people's support and caught the medias attention.
In 2010, the Taiwan Supreme Court ruled it was illegal to build the resort in the environmental protection area. The court ruled that the developer had to stop work on the resort, tear down the building, and also restore the area.
The most recently news is that the developer sued the Taitung county for allow it to build the resort on the beach. The developer asked the Taitung county to pay for its loss and the cost of tearing down the building and recovering the environmental damages. If the developer wins this case, the tax payers has to pay for the consequence. The result is that Beautiful Bay turned out ugly and became a major embarrassment for the Taitung County government.
In 2004, the Taitung government ignored the environmental protection law and signed a 50 year land leasing contract with the developer for solving its budget deficit problem. The contract allowed the developer to build the resort on the 6 hectares sand beach which was in an environmental protection area. The developer would pay only NT$ 30,000 or US$ 1,100 per month and 2% royalty fees to be allowed to build and operate the resort. The room rate in the resort would be around NT$ 10-20 thousands per night. The public would also have to pay an entree fee to visit the beach.
In the beginning of the construction, the tribal people, the residents, and the artists protested against the developer. Their efforts failed because of the powerful corporation and the authority of the county government; however, their continuous actions won more people's support and caught the medias attention.
In 2010, the Taiwan Supreme Court ruled it was illegal to build the resort in the environmental protection area. The court ruled that the developer had to stop work on the resort, tear down the building, and also restore the area.
The most recently news is that the developer sued the Taitung county for allow it to build the resort on the beach. The developer asked the Taitung county to pay for its loss and the cost of tearing down the building and recovering the environmental damages. If the developer wins this case, the tax payers has to pay for the consequence. The result is that Beautiful Bay turned out ugly and became a major embarrassment for the Taitung County government.
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| I walked into someone's courtyard after asking an old lady how to access to the beach. Several dogs were barking at me. I was very scared but unusual brave which I never experienced before. Perhaps, I was really attracted by this beach. The owner of the house agreed to let me walk through their housing area to reach the beach after I told him my intention for visiting the beach. |
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| I had to walked through this housing area and dogs didn't bark at me anymore. |
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| I was surprised for what I saw. The style of the house was beyond my imaginary which was a really simple original traditional tribal house. I wan't sure if I could live in this lifestyle? |
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| The owner of the house used drift wood to build this house on the right side of the picture. |
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| One of two friendly dogs led me to the beach. I guessed they were very excited for having someone walked with them to the beach. |
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| I found my way to the beautiful beach finally. It was nice to be at the beach but I wished I could shared the beautiful scenery with my husband. The two dogs ran away from me to enjoy the nice beach. |
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| Looking back at the housing area, there were a lot of drift wood from all around the island during the past typhoon seasons. |
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| They surely had a good time playing on the beach. They left nice footprints on the flat and clean beach. |
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| This was Beautiful Bay Resort. Because it sat on the beach, its foundation was not stable. The developer had to put a lot of cements beneath the beach which had caused a lot of coral reefs to die in stabilizing the resort's foundation. |
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| These posts were put up at the former Dulan Sugar Cane Factory. It illustrated how the resort damaged and endangered the natural environment of Sanyuan Bay. Also how the locals and other environmental activists pull together their efforts to stop this giant environmental monster. |
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| Just before I left the house, I spotted more than three kitty cats around the house and also some puppies. |
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| Her name was Panai who was the chairwomen of the Cihtong Tribal Village Association. She was also the female owner of the house. She might be used to a stranger passing by her house to get to the beach. We started to chat on many issues of the surrounding area for more than half hour and I forgot my husband was waiting for me in our car. She invited me to visit her again and she will take us to explore the natural ecological environments in this area. That was very nice of her to offer. I encourage any travels who want to visit Taiwan to interact with the locals. They will have very wonderful and unique experiences with the locals. |
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| She told me she had enough dogs and she asked me if I would like to adopt some of the puppies. I promised her that I would post the photo on my Facebook page for adoption. I did post this information. |
It was very nice to see people who came from different places in Taiwan to support the residents against this project. I hope the ugly bay resort would be removed from the location and everyone has the right to access to the beach not just for the rich people without paying a dime. So long Ugly Bay Resort!
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