Fenglin's Snail Racing Contest Brings Tourists Crawling Back
Fenglin Township promotes itself as a place that cherishes a slower lifestyle, symbolized by a snail racing championship that the town hopes will bring tourists back after a major earthquake in April.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 "Three, two, one, go!"
00:04 More than 100 snails from around the country gather in Fuling Township,
00:08 eastern Taiwan, to compete in the world's slowest sport.
00:12 They're here for the second annual snail-racing international championship,
00:16 and the snail owners are more excited and nervous than the competitors.
00:20 "It rained a few days ago, so we came out to look for snails and competitors."
00:26 "It doesn't matter what species, you said there's no national level."
00:30 "I train them differently every day.
00:33 Sometimes I wake them up early in the morning,
00:35 and sometimes I wake them up late at night.
00:37 Sometimes I feed them, and then I wake them up.
00:39 Sometimes I have to wake them up for two or three days,
00:41 and sometimes I have to put them in the fridge."
00:43 The snails line up at the starting line,
00:45 the inner yellow circle at the center of the table.
00:48 The snails, with their number marked on their shells,
00:51 crawl towards the finish line.
00:53 The first snail to touch the outer circle is crowned the winner.
00:56 And the winner is this giant African snail named Uzo Chonchonkwun,
01:04 which means "the universe rolls on."
01:06 It completed the 33-centimeter crawl
01:09 with a record-breaking performance of 1 minute, 25 seconds.
01:13 The prize? A bundle of organic sweet potato leaves.
01:17 "How do you deal with it?"
01:19 "I'll take it home and release it."
01:24 "You'll release it?"
01:25 "No, I'll cook it."
01:27 Fuling Township, with about 10,000 residents,
01:32 has the lowest population density in all of Taiwan.
01:35 In 2014, it was named Taiwan's first "slow city"
01:38 by CitiSlow International,
01:40 a group that encourages a slower lifestyle and eco-friendly habits.
01:44 Since then, the snail has become the town's symbol.
01:47 The snail mascot can be seen everywhere.
01:50 Alongside the snail race, a baby crawl race was held in another part of town,
01:55 with the toddlers dressed up as snails.
01:58 Inspired by snail races in the UK,
02:04 the organizers of the Fuling Race
02:06 hope to attract more people to this town in Taiwan's East Rift Valley.
02:10 After a devastating earthquake in early April,
02:13 many visitors were scared off by the quake,
02:15 and organizers hope the snail race can get people interested
02:18 in the town's slow lifestyle.
02:20 "We can't explain how slow we are,
02:24 but when you go back to the city,
02:26 you can clearly see the contrast between fast and slow.
02:29 We can't explain why we live here for so long,
02:32 but it's comfortable, there aren't too many people,
02:35 there are too many cars,
02:37 and we can do what we want to do.
02:39 Welcome to Fuling."
02:41 A Saturday filled with laughter and leisurely races,
02:44 locals hope that more people can experience the beauty of slow living.
02:48 Scott Huang, P.T. Zhuang and Saini Qi for Taiwan Plus.
02:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]