Taiwan has many important natural and cultural assets. National parks play an important role in ecological conservation and environmental education. The Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior (CPAMI) began organizing the National Park Week together with national parks, national nature parks and metropolitan parks in 2013, using a different theme each year. This year (2015) marks the 3rd year of the event! The National Park Week has become a major annual event to national parks. Director General Hsu Wen-Lung of the CMAPMI indicated that national parks not only serve the purposes of conservation and environmental education, but also allow the public to make memories. If you are still moved by a memory many years after visiting a national park, it means that the national park is already in your heart. The National Park Week has the same meaning, and aims to let the public share the magnificence and beauty of national parks. Director General Cheng Mao-Chun of Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters hopes that National Park Week will draw the attention of even more people to the environment, and is thus dedicated to promoting environmental education activities, encouraging the public to learn from the environment starting now! Taiwan’s 9 national parks, 1 national nature park, and 2 metropolitan parks all have different features that people dwell upon with great relish and cause them to linger on without any thought of leaving. The CPAMI moved the opening press conference of the National Park Week this year (2015) outdoors, and allowed reporters to first experience dialogue with national parks in coordination with the theme this year “National Park Week – Dialogue with Mountains and Sea!” to unveil the event. After receiving good feedback from the “102K National Park Nordic Walking” held in 2013, a new route was planned for the “103K National Park Nordic Walking” the following year (2014), and good feedback was received as well. Hence, the tradition of national park Nordic walking will be continued this year (2015), and the “104K National Park Nordic Walking” event will be planned with 38 routes to bring the public closer to national parks. The routes run through the diverse environments of national parks, national nature park and metropolitan parks from mountains, wetlands to sea. Statistics show that nearly 500 participants completed the national park Nordic walking route in years 1 and 2. Two of the participants that completed the route were invited to share their precious experience in the press conference this year (2015), in hopes of letting even more people experience Nordic walking in different places, so that they will understand the diversity of natural ecological and landscape resources in national parks, and promote environmental and ecological conservation. To increase the incentive to complete the route, besides giving points this year, 4-5 participants that complete the route will be drawn to receive a gift. If you’re interested, sign up now!