Taipei City Government

The submission period for the “Plan your own city tour” essay contest ended on March 19. The contest, organized by Taipei City Government Department of Information and Tourism (TPEDOIT), attracted a total of 146 submissions.
The review panel comprises 3 members: Zhou Yu-ru, founder of AGUA Design; Damon, a travel blogger; and rabbit38844(美食部落客小虎), a food blogger. The panelists will select 10 finalist from the pool. Members of the public can vote for their favorite entry online through April 6. Those casting votes can enter the sweepstake for a chance of winning prizes such as afternoon snack vouchers and movie tickets.
The panelist selected the finalists with the following criteria in mind: winning essays should be “content-rich, creative, and appropriate”. Many entries chose less popular Taipei attractions or traveling plans as topics. Damon noted that he discovered many new ways to tour Taipei from the essays. He was especially fascinated by entries that introduce “touring old and historic buildings”.
Panelist rabbit38844(美食部落客小虎) said that Taipei is a familiar city but changes rapidly. As a member of the jury, he obtained new inspirations for places to go and ways to travel from the entries. Panelist Zhou noted that she was impressed by an essay entry describing streets of dried food, night market with stinky tofu, and ancient temple filled with incense fragrance. There are always excitements around every corner in Taipei.
TPEDOIT City Tourism Division Chief Wang Shi-jia noted that the submission period for the contest was between February 25 and March 19. The agency received many essays in spite of the short submission period. The next phase of the contest will be the online voting. Everyone is encouraged to vote for their favorite travel essay. The voting will end on April 6.
For more information about the contest, please visit TRAVEL.TAIPEI (http://www.travel.taipei/en/) or the contest website (http://www.xinmedia.com/event/2015tpecity_travel/) (Chinese).