Couples picnic on blankets beside the promenade. Children ride bicycles, daring to take off the training wheels. Shutterbugs snap as the sun sinks. These are all scenes to be seen at Taipei City's Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕碼頭). And what makes them special is that they weren't here a year ago.
In the past year, the Taipei City Government has spent a considerable sum of money to revitalize not only this wharf, but much of Datong district (大同區) in which it sits.
Chen Feng-yang (陳鳳揚), the neighborhood chief responsible for area, says the amount of money the government has spent is "in the hundreds of millions," but that it's a small price to pay to bring people back to one of Taipei's most historic districts.
PHOTO, DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
"It's especially nice to see young people coming here and couples bringing their children," he said. "Datong district's residents are mostly elderly people. They remember when this neighborhood was the heart of Taipei. Creating this riverside park is a good first step, but there is still a lot that needs to be done to make Datong District the place it once was." Among the renovations at Dadaocheng Wharf are a paved promenade along the Tamshui River (淡水河) and a bicycle path through the area that connects with another along the Keelung River (基隆河) and beyond. During weekends, bicycles can be rented at Dadaocheng. Also on weekends, a concessions stand is open for business and refreshments can be enjoyed at one of the umbrella-topped tables on the new veranda.
The harbor is also one of the major points of entry and exit along the recently opened Blue Highway tours of Taipei's rivers. Passengers can board at Dadaocheng and ply the river to Danshui for dinner.
The view from Dadaocheng is acceptable too. Taipei Bridge can be seen to the north and visitors learn from a plaque that it was built in 1925 to replace the original wooden railroad bridge first built in 1893, before being rebuilt again in 1966 and 1991.
Another plaque tells of how Dadaocheng and Datong district became one of Taiwan's most thriving areas around 1869 for the tea trade that flourished here.
"Several of those tea companies are still doing business here," Chen said. "But we look forward to when Datong district flourishes again."
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
It starts out as a heartwarming clip. A young girl, clearly delighted to be in Tokyo, beams as she makes a peace sign to the camera. Seconds later, she is shoved to the ground from behind by a woman wearing a surgical mask. The assailant doesn’t skip a beat, striding out of shot of the clip filmed by the girl’s mother. This was no accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place, but one of the most visible examples of a spate of butsukari otoko — “bumping man” — shoving incidents in Japan that experts attribute to a combination of gender
RSS