The notification arrived on Saturday. Taoyuan’s tourism department received word that Lala Mountain had been named an Urban Night Sky Place by DarkSky International. Formal announcement comes Wednesday. It is the first such site in Taiwan and the third in Asia.
An Urban Night Sky Place sits near a city yet still offers a usable night sky. The rules are specific: within 50 kilometers of a town larger than 50,000 people, free public access, and at least two-thirds of the outdoor lighting in the zone must meet dark-sky standards. Lala sits roughly two hours from Taoyuan airport. The ridge line blocks a lot of the lowland glow. Hikers already know the Baling Tower as a place to see the Milky Way on clear nights.
Getting the lights right took longer than the application. The designated zone includes Atayal communities and ordinary houses. Road safety and night visibility could not be ignored. The city held briefings, ran workshops, trained guides, and adjusted more than 400 public streetlights—shields added, angles changed. Dozens of local inns signed a management agreement. A municipal light-pollution guideline was posted.
The other two Asian sites are one in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture and one in Zhejiang. DarkSky currently lists 19 Urban Night Sky Places worldwide. The certificate does not turn the mountain into a remote wilderness. It marks a place that has decided the night sky is worth keeping while people still live there.
Taipei Times carried the department’s statement. The stars were already there. The shields made the difference.