The Taipei City Government yesterday started the demolition of Jiancheng Circle (建成圓環) in the Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area.
The Taipei Market Administration Office said that the demolition would cost about NT$2.5 million (US$78,304) and should be completed by February.
The structure is to be converted into a park, with a reservoir below the circle, which has been declared a historical structure, to be preserved, the office said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Taipei Department of Culture Chief Secretary Liu Te-chien (劉得堅) said that a plan to preserve the reservoir would be submitted next month to the Taipei Cultural Assets Assessment Committee for review.
The Taipei Park and Street Lights Office, which is to oversee work on the park, said the facility has a NT$19 million budget and is scheduled to be completed in July.
“Time rolls on and some things are bound to become memories,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said, when asked to comment on the demolition on the sidelines of an event to promote next year’s Summer Universiade.
The structure had been rebuilt from a night market into an indoor food court during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term as Taipei mayor, which cost NT$200 million, Ko said.
“I am not saying that he had been negligent, but he built something strange, so much so that [the city government] could not figure out how to improve its functionality, and it had become a mausoleum,” he said.
In 1908 the circle was a bustling market and, from the 1950s to early 1990s, a night market, until it fell into disuse after the main building burned down in two separate fires in 1993 and 1999.
In an attempt to modernize the decades-old market, Ma in 2001 ordered the demolition of the food circle and built a two-story cylindrical glass building that opened in October 2003.
However, the modern building did not appeal to food vendors, residents or tourists.
A Taipei resident, surnamed Cheng (鄭,) said he used to frequent the facility with friends when it was a night market, but has not visited in more than 10 years.
Though he feels somewhat nostalgic that the modern structure is being torn down, it is about time that the facility be removed so that the land can be put to better use, Cheng said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS