Q: Where are the good beaches?
A-Hok says:
If cleanliness is your concern, the good ol’ Environmental Protection Administration in June listed Taipei County’s New Jinshan Bathing Beach (新金山) as the cleanest beach on the island for swimming.
Taipei County’s Fulong Beach (福隆), Miaoli County’s Chiting (崎頂) and Tunghsiao beaches (通霄), and Taitung County’s Shanyuan Beach (杉原) are also good choices.
However, if gorgeous weather, a nice stretch of sand, and [not so] crystal clean waters in a million shades of blue is more your style, then A-hok would humbly suggest you visit the beaches in Kenting, and on Lanyu and Penghu islands.
Shawei (沙尾), which stretches for 1,000m in Penghu’s Chipei Islet (吉貝嶼), is known as the “golden beach.” It enjoys six months of summer sun a year and is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Taiwan.
Kenting’s South Bay (南灣), a heavenly beautiful but impossibly packed beach almost year-round, with soft sand, eternal sunshine and a gazillion stalls selling iced coffee and popsicles, is a beach every tourist dreams of.
Those looking for a reclusive spot can consider Lanyu (蘭嶼) island – with only 2,000-some residents and sandy beaches all around looking out to endless ocean — the whole island can be your backyard beach paradise.
Q: Where can I find out in English/Spanish/Filipino whether or not the offices and schools in Taipei will be closed during a typhoon?
A-hok says:
The Taipei City’s Information and Tourism Department told me that the city’s Web site (www.taipei.gov.tw) would replace its homepage with information from the city’s disaster prevention and rescue information page (http://tdprc2.tfd.gov.tw/TaipeiCityEms1_public/) at times when typhoons affect northern Taiwan.
The page provides updates on typhoon-related information in Chinese and English, and you can check whether the Taipei City Government has announced office and school closings for typhoon days.
You can also call the Taipei City Government’s 24-hour hotline by dialing 1999 to inquire about the possibility of office and schools closings on typhoon days.
The typhoon hotline offers inquiry services in English as well. Unfortunately, neither the Web site nor the hotline offer Spanish or Filipino services, the department said.
Radio Taiwan International does generally make typhoon-related announcements in their around-the-clock news programs in several languages, including Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese. You could check the broadcast schedule online (www.rti.org.tw) and find the news broadcast in the language you need.
If you have something you’d like to ask, please write to community@taipeitimes.com.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique