We here at WoWasis love to scuba dive. And we heard the coral reefs were great here at the southern tip of Taiwan. The bad news is we didn’t go diving, and we’ll tell you why. The good news is there may be a solution.

Our adventure began when a couple of nice guides at Kending National Park told us we could find dive operators at both Baisha and Houbihu villages, a few short clicks away. Baisha had nothing, and Houbihou had a few shops, but no one spoke any English, there were no PADI signs, nor anything to indicate anyone was certified for anything. We need an English-speaking dive master, because there are always a few things we want to discuss before the dive:  conditions, the buddy system, depth, you name it. One woman who owned a shop asked her daughter to translate. I asked if they offered scuba. No one knew what “scuba” was. So mom pulled out a piece of cardboard with both English and Chinese writing, moved her finger down to the word “scuba,” then said “yes, we scuba, how many go?” and opened her order book. Needless to say, we didn’t have the warm fuzzies about diving in Houbihu.

On the way back to town, our luck appeared to change, with the appearance of a professional-looking, full-blown dive operation called the LongJing Dive Resort, run by a friendly English-speaking woman named Vivi. Although we’d run out of time for diving, this operation looked first class, was a PADI 5-star shop, and divers can stay there, too, at NT$ 800 per night per cabin, and fit up to 4 people in each cabin. Here’s what Vivi charges, all in NT$ money:

1) Dive from a boat: $1200
2) English-speaking dive master: $1500
3) Regulator, BCD, mask, snorkel, fins, weights: $1000
4) Tank $200

That’s under $150 USD, and I’ll bet you could add a tank for another dive, do a little Taiwanese-style bargaining, and have a pretty good day of it. Here’s the contact info:

Long Jing Dive Resort
Corner Highways 153 and 26
Near Kending, Taiwan
GPS: N21°58.153’  E120°45.373’
Tel: +886 095-836-057
www.longjing.com.tw
vivi@longjing.com.tw