All quiet in Hualien as search continues for missing 600

City streets empty over long weekend as travellers skip popular destination

- Yip Wai Yee

HUALIEN, Taiwan - One day after Taiwan's strongest earthquake in 25 years triggered landslides and toppled buildings, the eastern city of Hualien near the epicentre was unusually quiet for a long weekend.

Known for being the base for travellers to visit Hualien county's picturesque Taroko National Park, the city is a popular travel destination with tourists, hikers and cyclists.

But on the first day of the fourday holiday on April 4 - which is both Children's Day and the Qing Ming Festival, when families gather to honour the departed - many of the city's streets downtown were empty.

Taxi driver and tour guide Sung Kun-yi, 45, said that many tourists understandably had cancelled their trips after the county saw severe damage following the 7.4magnitude earthquake that has killed 10 people and injured more than 1,000.

Local reports said tour and hotel operators in the southern county of Pingtung, where the island's sandy white Kenting beaches are situated, have since been inundated with booking requests from holidaymakers who wish to skip Hualien.