Jiayou Bike Path: The best way to downtown Chiayi (China Post)

The Jiayou Bicycle Trail is a worthy addition to Taiwan's fast-growing network of bike paths and tourist cycling routes. Just three-and-a-half kilometers long, it links Gexiliao in Chiayi County's Shuishang Township with Shihsian Road in the southeastern corner of Chiayi City.

Like several former sugar refineries around Taiwan and the Gold Ecological Park in Jinguashih, the trail is another example of industrial heritage being repackaged as a tourist attraction.

Originally, a narrow-gauge branch railroad operated by CPC Corporation, Taiwan - the state-run oil company - it was converted to a cycle path and opened to the public in late 2007. The name was chosen by local citizens via an Internet poll. The tracks, which were laid in 1942, are still in place. On either side there are concrete lanes just wide enough for bicycles to pass each other. As on a normal road, cyclists are expected to stay on the right...

As usual, the whole thing is online.