Called the Taoyuan Medical Zone, the hub will feature a 6-hectare hospital as well as hotels, shopping malls and entertainment facilities.

"What we are offering is a one-stop service from pickup at the airport to surgery to sightseeing," Wu says.

The construction is expected to wrap up in two to three years' time.

He also discloses that medical tourism zones are also planned for Taichung in central Taiwan and Kaohsiung and Tainan in the south.

Another one, to be set up in Hsinchu, Taiwan's high-tech base, will focus on biomedical research, with tourism as an auxiliary feature.

A special program on medical tourism in Taiwan will air on the Discovery Channel in 2011.

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