PCT urges prayer as Taiwan’s last remaining natural coastline is threatened

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

3100 Edition

July 25~31, 2011

Church Ministry News

PCT urges prayer as Taiwan’s last remaining natural coastline is threatened

Reported by Lin Yi-ying

Written by Lydia Ma

The plight to preserve Alangyi Trail, an 8km long ancient trail in Pingtung 
County and Taiwan’s last remaining untouched coastline, ended on a sad note on 
July 24, 2011, though 52,000 individuals and 828 organizations signed a 
petition that would have preserved Alangyi and turned it into a national nature 
reserve. At least 100,000 petitions were needed before the end of the day to 
validate this petition. 

This ancient trail was established in the 1870s for indigenous tribes to travel 
along the coast and is Taiwan’s last remaining natural coastline. But for some 
time, the Ministry of Transportation (MOT) has been wanting to finish a highway 
network traversing the southern and eastern coasts of Taiwan. This highway 
known as Provincial Highway 26 – and dubbed “Nuclear Wastes Expressway” because 
of two nuclear disposal plants built by it– has so far been stalled because of 
a temporary nature reserve designation status. 

But now that Alangyi’s special status has expired and the petition to designate 
it as a national nature reserve has failed, the future of Alangyi is in peril. 
Government studies list various reasons why it would benefit local residents 
and the MOT to complete Highway 26, such as boosting local tourism, reducing 
car journeys by 40 minutes, and facilitating the transportation of nuclear 
wastes to Taiwan’s east coast for disposal. But to date, these benefits are 
purely subjective and conjectural.

According to Rev. Fang Lan-ting, Taiwan Church News General Editor, reading and 
reference materials for “Don’t cry, Alangyi!” prayer meeting will be published 
by Taiwan Church News in time for a prayer meeting to be held on September 17, 
2011. This prayer meeting is part of the “Lift up my eyes to the hills” prayer 
movement that began across PCT churches in 2010.

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