On a warm, sunny second day of the Lunar New Year yesterday, more drivers hit the road — for sightseeing or so that married women could pay the traditional visit to their parents — than were seen on Thursday.
From early morning, motorists crowded freeways nationwide, leading to reduced driving speeds and traffic jams along several sections of Freeway No. 1.
Starting about 8am, sections between the Jhongli (中壢) and Pingjhen (平鎮) system interchange, Hukou (湖口) and Hsinchu and from Taichung to Changhua all saw heavy traffic, with drivers forced to slow down from 50kph to 30kph, the National Freeway Bureau said.
Freeway No. 3 saw heavy traffic in several sections, especially near Dasi (大溪) and Longtan (龍潭), and popular tourist attractions. Drivers also packed Freeway No. 5 to and from Yilan.
The bureau said it expected the peak traffic hours on the second day of the Year of the Rabbit to extend until 10pm, with sections near Yangmei (楊梅) in Taoyuan to Jhongli on Freeway No. 1 as well as on Freeway No. 5, between the Hsuehshan Tunnel and Toucheng (頭城) expected to be clogged up.
Southbound lanes on freeways gradually saw conditions ease in the afternoon, while northbound lanes in various parts of the country remained congested, it said.
Meanwhile, the Central Weather Bureau said that warm, sunny weather was expected to stay around for the rest of the Lunar New Year holiday for most parts of the nation, with plenty of sun and temperatures up to 27?C or 28?C in the south.
While temperatures would remain chilly in the early mornings and late nights, those in north can look forward to sunny skies and highs in the mid-20s over the next few days, while those in the central regions will see highs of 27?C or 28?C through Monday, the weather bureau said.
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