Yilan County Botanical Garden and Kavalan Distillery Guided Tour
Date: June 13, 2026 (Sunday)
Established in 1982, Fushan Botanical Garden is part of the Fushan Experimental Forest of the Forestry Research Institute that conserves Taiwan’s low- and mid-elevation forestry. After a 30-minute orientation, you are free to explore this Garden through a 2,870-meter trail made up of four interconnected loops. There are no trash bins provided and no meals offered in the garden to minimize environmental disturbance. All visitors are asked to look out for snakes, bees, and other poisonous nonhuman creatures. In the early afternoon, we will visit a distillery to consider the meaning of agricultural extractivism and human exceptionalism in non-traditional wine-making climates.
Itinerary
Departs: 7:30 am at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica
Lunch at a local farm-to-table restaurant
Ends: 5:00 pm (without traffic) at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica
To reserve a seat (see Registration）
What to bring:
Passport or Taiwan ID (to enter the Garden); photo copies not allowed
water, snacks, sun protection (hat, sunscreen, sunglasses), bug spray, cash and credit card, walking shoes, personal medication
Ecotour Guide: Jerome C. Su ｜ Founder of Bookman Books
Jerome C. Su
Jerome C. Su is an ASLE-Taiwan board member and the past president of the Taiwan Association of Translation and Interpreting and is actively involved in translation policy development in Taiwan. He is a veteran translator, editor, dictionary critic, amateur botanist and teaches “Translation as a Profession” in the Graduate School of Translation and Interpreting at National Taiwan Normal University.
Mr. Su founded a publishing house and book importing business Bookman Books in 1977 and started an agency B. K. Agency for international publishers and authors in 1997 and is the chair of both companies.
Mr. Su is the author of Nature Walks with Culture Talks. One of his guided tours inspired Dr. Wiley Blevins to write Ninja Plants: Survival and Adaptation in the Plant World which he dedicated it to Jerome Su: “To Jerome Su, who inspired this book after our walk through the campus grounds of National Taiwan University.”
Organizers: Pei-wen Kao and Serena Chou
