Taoyuan's Lala Mountain becomes Taiwan's first Urban Night Sky Place

Taoyuan, Oct. 12 (CNA) Lala Mountain in Taoyuan has been designated an Urban Night Sky Place by DarkSky International, becoming the first site in Taiwan and the third in Asia to receive the recognition, the city's Department of Tourism said Monday.

The department said it was notified of the designation Saturday by the U.S.-based nonprofit, which would formally announce it on Wednesday. The nonprofit works to protect the nighttime environment.

According to DarkSky International, an Urban Night Sky Place is a municipal park, open space, stargazing site or similar property in or near a heavily urbanized area that promotes an authentic nighttime experience despite significant artificial light.

The designation recognizes sites that educate the public about responsible outdoor lighting that maintains public safety while reducing harm to the nighttime environment, the organization said.

DarkSky International currently lists 19 Urban Night Sky Places worldwide. The other two in Asia are Minami-Rokuroshi in Japan's Fukui Prefecture and Zhangwu Town in China's Zhejiang Province.

The department said applicants must meet several strict criteria, including being within 50 kilometers of a town with a population of more than 50,000, providing free public access and ensuring that more than two-thirds of outdoor lighting in the designated area complies with dark-sky lighting principles.

Because the designated area at Lala Mountain includes Indigenous communities and other residential areas, improving the lighting required extensive discussions with residents to balance dark-sky protection with road safety and daily needs, the department said in a press release.

To win local support, the city held community briefings, workshops on improving lighting and raising awareness, training courses for stargazing guides and dark-sky-themed activities, it said.

The Taoyuan government also fitted shields to, or adjusted the angles of, more than 400 publicly owned streetlights, the department said.

The city hopes to combine ecological conservation with stargazing tourism to develop Lala Mountain as a nighttime travel destination, the department said.