The Taipei City Government plans to remove 37 existing old trees to make room for the exit of a pedestrian underpass connecting the Taipei Dome with the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
However, a group devoted to conserving trees in the city’s Songshan District wants to preserve them, and has proposed to the Department of Cultural Affairs that the entire Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and surrounding park, plus the Guangfu Elementary School with its Guangfu Building, the trees growing around them and the cotton tree path on Guangfu South Road should be made into a cultural scenery conservation zone. On Oct. 14, the Department of Cultural Affairs convened an interdepartmental on-site meeting. A representative of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall who was present at the meeting also said that the cultural scenery should include the old trees and that the hall’s management did not want the trees to be moved. The area’s cultural heritage status will be discussed and decided by the Taipei City Council late next month.
Committee members present at the Oct. 14 site meeting included academics Lee Chien-lang, Hsing Woan-chiau and Chang Kun-chen, as well as officials from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) and other departments. Some committee members wondered why the trees could not be put back when the construction work was finished. Chen Chun-hung, an office director from DORTS, said that, according to specialists, trees that are transplanted twice are much more likely to die, so the 37 trees would be transplanted just once to the new site of the Taipei Children’s Recreation Center and the Jhihtan Water Purification Plant in New Taipei City’s Sindian District, while trees of the same species would be planted on the original site, which would also allow the space between trees to be widened from three meters to five.
Photo: Yu Pei-ru, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者游蓓茹
Kung Hsi-chia, representing the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, said that the main thematic buildings had already been listed by the Department of Cultural Affairs, and that the surrounding trees had accompanied the memorial hall for more than 40 years, making them an integral part of the memorial hall scenery. Kung said that if the area was authenticated as being a cultural scenic zone, then these trees should be included in it. For this reason, Kung called for the trees to be preserved. Kung said that the city government should do the work in a different way that would not require the trees to be moved. If the city government insisted on moving the trees, Kung said that the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall would ask it to propose a more detailed landscaping plan.
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
北市府規劃大巨蛋到國父紀念館地下連通道,因出入口設計,將移除三十七棵現有老樹,松菸護樹團體為保護樹群,向文化局提報國父紀念館全區、光復國小的光復樓、周遭樹木與光復南路木棉道,整區做為文化景觀保存區。十月十四日文化局召開跨局處會勘,國館也現場表態,指文化景觀應包含老樹、不願樹被移動,而文資身分下月底將送大會審議決定。
十月十四日的出席委員包括李乾朗、辛晚教、張崑振,與文化局、捷運局等各局處現場勘察。委員質疑,樹為何不能在施工後、原地放回來?捷運局處長陳俊宏表示,專家評估,老樹若經過二次移植,死亡率將大幅提升,所以,三十七棵樹將一次搬移至新兒童樂園、新店直潭淨水場;而原地將種回原樹種,也可將現有三米的樹距拓寬到五米。
國父紀念館代表龔錫家說,主體建築已被文化局列冊,周遭老樹陪著國館,一路走來四十多年,樹也成為國館景觀的一部分,若鑑定為文化景觀,就應包含這些老樹,故要求就地保留;市府應採用其他工法、不讓樹被移動,倘若市府堅持要移樹,國館就要求市府提出更細緻的景觀規劃。
(自由時報記者游蓓茹)
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
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)
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It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110