Tour to National Center for Traditional Arts

You can download the PDF version of local cultural tour here.

The tour will include visits to the lovely National Center for Traditional Arts in Yilan. The participants not only can experience traditional Taiwanese arts, but also other Asia country exhibition archive and performance in the center. Moreover, we will drive through the longest tunnel, Hsueh-shan Tunnel, in Taiwan.

Date: Monday, July 12, 2010
Bus Departure Time: 08:45am
Assembling Place: Lobby, Grand Formosa Hotel
Bus Returning Time: 15:15pm
Return Trip Assembling Place: South Exit

Taiwan's Hsueh-shan Tunnel
Taiwan's Hsueh-shan Tunnel (or "Snow Mountain" tunnel) is the longest tunnel in Taiwan, located on the Taipei-Yilan Freeway (Taiwan National Highway No. 5). The road connects the city of Taipei to the northeastern county of Yilan, cutting down the journey time from two hours to just half an hour. It is constructed with one pilot tunnel and two main tunnels for eastbound and westbound traffic. The total length is 12.942 km (8.042 mi), making the Hsueh-shan Tunnel the second longest road tunnel in East Asia and the fifth longest road tunnel in the world.

While excavating the tunnel, engineers encountered difficult geological problems like fractured rock and massive inflows of water, which caused severe delays. One of the three TBMs on the westbound tunnel was buried by a ground collapse. In order to speed up the tunnel boring, an additional working interface in Interchange Station No. 2 (under Ventilation Shaft No. 2) was built. Along the tunnel alignment, there are 6 major faults, 98 fracture zones, and 36 high-pressure groundwater. Hence, serious tunnel collapses with groundwater flooding took place periodically during tunnel construction. Altogether, 25 lives were lost during 14 years of construction.

It opened in June 2006. As of May 1, 2008, the speed limit has been raised to 80 km/h with a 10 km/h tolerance. At this speed a trip through the 12.9 km tunnel takes 8.6 minutes

National Center for Traditional Arts
The aim of the National Center for Traditional Arts is to make sure that traditional arts can be passed on to future generations. In addition, in order to extend the influence of our traditions and to encourage more participation by people in the local residential area, we have now clearly defined this cultural park as a governmental organization that is managed by a private company under the supervision of the government.

The National Center for Traditional Arts is situated at the downstream of the Dong Shan River in Wujie township. The total space of the park covers some 24 hectares and was built to meet the needs of traditional theater, music, dance, arts, and acrobatics. The park has 21 buildings and sites in total. Major areas in the park are briefly explained below.

1. Study Area for Traditional Arts: This area consists of the Modern Theater, the Traditional Music Hall, the Graduate School of Traditional Arts and the Library. There are also study and rehearsal spaces in the theater. The music hall has spaces for research and teaching and there is also a space for rehearsals in the stadium.
2. Traditional Theatre Performance Areas: This area includes the Modern Theatre, the Traditional Music Hall, the Exhibition Center and an outdoor theater and plaza.
3. Promotion and Development Zones for Traditional Arts: This includes areas such as the Exhibition Center, the Guang-Hsiao Hall, the Artists?? Studios, the Traditional Toy Center, the Wen-Chang Hall, the Traditional Theatre, food stands, the House of Huang and the Informational center.
4. The Experience Zone: This includes the North and South Gates, wetlands, inner river banks, an outdoor plaza (this is used for traditional acrobats, traditional athletics and larger performances), a botanical garden, self-guided nature trails and a sewerage treatment area.

For more information about the center, please visit http://www.ncfta.gov.tw/ncfta_eh/e01/index.aspx.