A crowd of about 800,000 people converged on the Xinyi District (信義) in Taipei on Saturday night for the city’s countdown celebrations to welcome the new year, the Taipei City Police Department said yesterday.
Floods of people began to crowd into the Taipei City Hall Plaza and the area around Taipei 101 from late Saturday afternoon for the New Year’s Eve countdown festivities.
The focal point of the New Year’s Eve bash was the annual fireworks show at the Taipei 101 skyscraper. This year’s show, which cost NT$30 million (US$990,600), lasted 202 seconds and consisted of 30,000 fireworks.
Photo: EPA/TAIPEI 101
To accommodate the crush of people, the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system remained in operation throughout the night and handled 2.04 million passengers. About 850 volunteers and MRT police were on hand to help maintain order and provide assistance to the handicapped, the elderly, pregnant women and children.
During the six-hour celebration, 172 people called for help, with 62 suffering from falls or sprains and 110 complaining of chest tightness, fever or other problems brought on by the crowded conditions, according to the police department.
Though 60 environmental protection volunteers were on the scene with placards encouraging sound environmental practices, 17.5 tonnes of garbage littered the area and was cleaned up by 500 workers before daybreak.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Fireworks displays were also the highlights of New Year’s Eve celebrations in Greater Kaohsiung.
The fireworks show at E-Da World, a recreation complex, lasted 11 minutes and 11 seconds, and the show at the Dream Mall lasted 180 seconds.
A young man attending the E-Da World party suffered a burn on his head after being hit by burning embers from a firecracker set off by someone in the crowd. He was rushed to the emergency ward of a nearby hospital and was discharged 30 minutes later after being treated, E-Da World spokeswoman Chiang Hui-sung (江惠頌) said.
Photo: Liao Shu-ling, Taipei Times
The individual suspected of setting off the firecracker or explosive device that caused the injury was arrested by police, Chiang 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
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft