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."
In recent weeks the Trump Administration has been demanding that Taiwan transfer half of its chip manufacturing to the US. In an interview with NewsNation, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that the US would need 50 percent of domestic chip production to protect Taiwan. He stated, discussing Taiwan’s chip production: “My argument to them was, well, if you have 95 percent, how am I gonna get it to protect you? You’re going to put it on a plane? You’re going to put it on a boat?” The stench of the Trump Administration’s mafia-style notions of “protection” was strong
Every now and then, it’s nice to just point somewhere on a map and head out with no plan. In Taiwan, where convenience reigns, food options are plentiful and people are generally friendly and helpful, this type of trip is that much easier to pull off. One day last November, a spur-of-the-moment day hike in the hills of Chiayi County turned into a surprisingly memorable experience that impressed on me once again how fortunate we all are to call this island home. The scenery I walked through that day — a mix of forest and farms reaching up into the clouds
With one week left until election day, the drama is high in the race for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair. The race is still potentially wide open between the three frontrunners. The most accurate poll is done by Apollo Survey & Research Co (艾普羅民調公司), which was conducted a week and a half ago with two-thirds of the respondents party members, who are the only ones eligible to vote. For details on the candidates, check the Oct. 4 edition of this column, “A look at the KMT chair candidates” on page 12. The popular frontrunner was 56-year-old Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文)
“How China Threatens to Force Taiwan Into a Total Blackout” screamed a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) headline last week, yet another of the endless clickbait examples of the energy threat via blockade that doesn’t exist. Since the headline is recycled, I will recycle the rebuttal: once industrial power demand collapses (there’s a blockade so trade is gone, remember?) “a handful of shops and factories could run for months on coal and renewables, as Ko Yun-ling (柯昀伶) and Chao Chia-wei (趙家緯) pointed out in a piece at Taiwan Insight earlier this year.” Sadly, the existence of these facts will not stop the
RSS