NPS to begin charging visitors to some national parks

By Huang Yi-ching, Wu Liang-yi and Esme Yeh / Staff reporters, with staff writer Add TT as Preferred Source The National Park Service (NPS) is planning to charge visitors to many of the 100 Peaks of Taiwan as early as next year in order to fund environmental conservation and park operations.It has drafted amendments to the National Park Act (國家公園法) to establish a national park fund and charge visitors applying for an entry permit to ecologically protected areas of any of the nine national parks or the Shoushan National Nature Park (壽山國家自然公園).The draft would be sent to the Executive Yuan for review early next year, and could be implemented by the end of next year, sources said. Hikers are pictured in undated photograph. Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times The NPS sought the regulatory change a