The Goamei Wetlands Visitor
Center building perfectly
complements the landscape of
the wetlands.
Goamei Wetlands Visitor
Center is located at Gaomei
Public Park 68.
Thanks to the Gaomei
Wetlands boardwalk, visitors
can enjoy the
intertidal plants
and animals found in this area.
The beauty of sunrise at the
Gaomei Wetlands always
attracts many tourists.
The wetlands is a habitat for
rare plants such as the Yunlin
Cyperaceae.
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Taichung Wuqi Fishing Harbor's White Dolphin Aquarium aims to protect this mammal's habitat,
even as the Gaomei Wetlands Experience Hall presents the beauty of this scenic natural attraction,
allowing visitors to use a boardwalk that gives them an enjoyable, up-close experience with the
wetlands ecology and coastal scenery without destroying it...
The habitat for seriously-endangered white dolphins is located along Taiwan's western coast. The Gaomei Wetlands is also an important natural ecological resource in this area. To combine the goals of ecological conservation, environmental education and tourism, Taichung Wuqi Fishing Harbor will establish Taiwan's first-ever white dolphin aquarium, making the city a conservation hub for these aquatic mammals and other marine creatures. Moreover, the boardwalk project at the Gaomei Wetlands was recently completed, allowing visitors to enjoy intertidal zone plants and animals without damaging or destroying the local ecology. The new Gaomei Wetlands Visitor Center and Experience Hall will be completed and opened next year. The connection between Wuqi Harbor and Gaomei Visitor Center to other coastal recreation attractions will help establish central Taiwan sightseeing and eco-tourism while also offering the best example of an "International environmental education park".
White Dolphin Aquarium: A base for rescue, restoration
The white dolphin, often called a "Mazu fish" and "pink dolphin", has the scientific name of Sousa chinensis and is also referred to as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin. Every year around the goddess Mazu's birthday during the third lunar month, after the northeast monsoon fades, sightings of white dolphins increase dramatically along Taiwan's central coastline, as if they are welcoming the birthday. The "Mazu fish" nickname also arises from a legend that fishing boat accident victims were brought back to safety by white dolphins, as if protected by the goddess.
To make Taichung into a center for protecting white dolphins and other marine creatures, Taichung city government has initiated the creation of the first white dolphin aquarium in Taiwan, and is consolidating the local fishing industry and tourist recreational resources around a central eco-tourism theme.
Located in the western part of the Taichung Wuqi Fishing Harbor recreation area, the White Dolphin Aquarium is expected to begin construction in October this year and will be completed in March, 2016. Plans call for it to be divided into four large spaces, including a service area, display area, theater and rooftop landscaped gazebo. The main building of the aquarium will have a white dolphin theme, using transparent glass as a base supporting the main dolphin-like main structure. A jumping white dolphin has also been designated as a new landmark for Wuqi Harbor.
The first floor will serve as a venue for exhibitions providing information about the sea and earth, and a third-floor sea animals classroom and white dolphin history exhibition hall will give people an understanding of marine ecosystems and promote conservation concepts. In addition to showcasing ecology, sightseeing boats and dive photography will be combined to show live marine ecology in the hall. A dome-shaped 3D theater will also accommodate 450 people, and a top-floor sea-view restaurant will show some sea animals and offer visitors a dining spot that feels near to the ocean.
Gaomei Wetlands boardwalk: Great for an eco-friendly stroll
Whenever the weather's nice, Qingshui district's Gaomei Wetlands attracts many tourists from all over, coming to enjoy bird watching and the beautiful sunsets. This coastal wetlands also offers a variety of ecological attractions and serves as a natural classroom.
The increasing number of tourists in recent years has led many people--wanting to enjoy the nearby wetlands--to cross directly from the seawall to the wetlands, damaging or destroying the local ecology in the process. On June 22, 2012, Taichung city government announced that the Gaomei Wetlands would be managed by three areas--a "core area", "buffer area" and "sustainable use area". The core and buffer areas are off-limits to visitors, who are only allowed into the sustainable use area. The initial boardwalk project was finished in May, 2013 and the second project was completed this past March. An ecological corridor design concept was used, with the boardwalk raised to expand connections between wetlands habitats, allowing visitors to closely observe the wetlands ecosystem but not damaging living spaces for intertidal organisms.
Gaomei Wetlands Visitors Center: The 'Diamond Green Building'
In order to implement and expand on the goal of "keeping visitors on the embankment nearby and the swamp in the wetlands", the Gaomei Wetlands visitor center and exhibition and experience hall are situated in Gaomei Public Park 68. Construction started at the end of 2013 and should be completed next January. "The Gaomei Wetlands Visitor Center, experience hall, parking space and new facility with landscape construction" highlighting the ecology, sunsets, wind power and other unique landscapes and natural resources, incorporates functions that include flood detention, ecology, recreation, water quality improvement and many other features. This has earned it the honor of already being named the 2013 National Gold Medal of Excellence Award Winning Building. Besides maintaining an original wind-breaking function inside the park, the building's shape will be visually striking but use a low-profile landscaping plan that offers the perfect balance between architecture and the wetlands, maintaining the harmonious beauty of the landscape, promoting conservation and sustainable use.
The Gaomei Wetlands Visitior Center and exhibition and experience hall will be located in the two-floor building. To recreate the ecological scenery from the origin wetlands park, the tide is allowed to come through the first floor, with modern technology used to imitate a wetlands ecology and provide a realistic experience that includes fiddler crabs, mudskippers and other creatures, in a reminder of how important the wetlands ecosystem is.
In the top-floor scenic observation point area, people will be able to enjoy sunrises at dawn and the beauty of sunsets over the wetlands and nearby windmills spinning in the breeze, embracing the varied beauty and life of the Gaomei Wetlands.
Consolidating local resources to create a new tourism vision
Combined with Wuqi Fishing Harbor, the White Dolphin Aquarium creates a connection with the Gaomei Wetlands, making Qingshui district a central Taiwan tourism highlight that allows visitors to enjoy the beautiful wetlands ecology, fresh seafood from Wuqi Harbor and watch the blue coastline from the aquarium's observation deck, in an in-depth, educational coastal journey of exploration.
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June 2014
