Taiwan's newest national park

Taijiang National Park, the newest of Taiwan's eight national parks, has finally got its own website, almost a year after it was established.

The park is an odd shape. In addition to segments of dry land, river estuaries and wetlands northwest of Tainan's city centre, it includes a large rectangular section of the Taiwan Strait that goes as far west as the southeastern tip of Penghu County.

The beaches around here aren't Taiwan's best. Nonetheless, the park draws at least two kinds of tourist: birdwatchers (many of whom come especially to see the black-faced spoonbill); and folk who want to visit sites associated with Koxinga or the now-defunct salt industry.