The Swiss luxury hotel chain Kempinski said on April 9 that it was dropping plans to open a huge pyramid-shaped hotel that has stood half-built for decades in North Korea amid escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.
“Kempinski Hotels confirms that KEY International, its joint venture partner in China with Beijing Tourism Group, had initial discussions to operate a hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea,” Brigitte Hohl Taylor, a spokeswoman told AFP in an e-mail.
“However, no agreement has been signed since market entry is not currently possible,” she said, adding in a phone conversation that the discussions had been halted.
Photo: AFP / Koryo Tours
照片:法新社/Koryo Tours
In November last year, the Geneva-based luxury hotel chain said it hoped to open Pyongyang’s 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel — a monolithic concrete shell dubbed the “Hotel of Doom” by international media that has been repeatedly delayed — in July or August this year.
On April 7, however, the South China Morning Post reported that the Swiss company had decided to ditch the project amid the increasingly bellicose rhetoric from the North Korean regime.
Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il reportedly ordered construction of the Ryugyong Hotel in 1987, initially with skills and capital from a French company. In 2008 the project was named the “Worst Building in the History of Mankind” by US men’s lifestyle magazine Esquire.
(AFP)
朝鮮半島緊張情勢急遽升高之際,瑞士豪華連鎖飯店「凱賓斯基酒店集團」四月九日表示,將放棄在北韓經營金字塔造型的大型飯店。這棟半完工的飯店已在北韓屹立數十年。
凱賓斯基女發言人泰勒透過電子郵件告訴法新社:「凱賓斯基酒店證實,酒店和北京首旅集團在中國合資的夥伴KEY International,曾初步討論過在北韓首都平壤經營飯店。」
她表示:「不過,由於目前不可能進入市場,所以一直未簽訂協議。」泰勒在電話中表示,討論已停止。
總部設在日內瓦的凱賓斯基酒店集團去年十一月曾表示,希望這棟一百零五層樓的柳京飯店,能在今年七月或八月開幕。這棟以水泥為外殼的巨大建築物,被國際媒體取名為「厄運飯店」,開幕日期一延再延。
不過,《南華早報》四月七日報導,由於北韓政權頻頻發表好戰言論,這家瑞士企業已決定放棄經營柳京飯店的計畫。
據稱北韓前領導人金正日在一九八七年下令興建柳京飯店,最初借重一家法國公司的技術和資金。這項計畫在二○○八年被美國男性雜誌《君子雜誌》評為「人類史上最糟糕的建築」。
(法新社/翻譯:陳維真)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into