Bitan Tourist Attraction

This guide to the Bitan Tourist Attraction near Taipei starts with the nine competing ferrymen who once poled travelers across this stretch of the Xindian River, and the 1927 newspaper poll that named the spot one of Taiwan's most scenic views. It follows the 1937 decision, under Japanese colonial rule, to replace the ferries with a suspension bridge nearly two hundred meters long, and what it took to build a single span that could carry a thousand people at once. You'll hear why later cable wear forced the city to build newer bridges downstream. Stand on the original span and feel the wooden planks still tremble underfoot.