A writer in his sixties living in Taichung was thrilled recently that he and his wife were awarded the opportunity to become the caretakers of a small railway station in the northern Hakka county of Hsinchu.
Hohsing Railway Station, located on a bypass of the hilly Neiwan Route (
Tseng, who now runs and owns a chain of mental arithmetic schools in Taichung City, central Taiwan, wrote a novel entitled Chasing (
In the novel, Tseng recounted how he once -- as an 18-year-old high school student -- chased the passing train, which came past only once every hour, in order not to miss his final exams on a morning in 1954.
He ran after the train at full speed and was finally able to catch it at the next stop, making it to school on time to take his exams.
On the train he also met a girl who was also from Hohsing and took the same train to school every morning, but whom he had never talked to until that "rushed" morning.
From that day, Tseng and Peng became gradually more acquainted, taking the same train to school in Hsinchu City every day.
They have now been married for 36 years and they both say they love the railway and the trains.
The couple say they are thrilled because they are now allowed to look after Hohsing Railway Station -- "their" railway station -- which is currently half-deserted because no personnel from the Taiwan Railway Administration are stationed there.
Although trains still pass through and stop at Hohsing Station every day, the station presently does not maintain any ticketing or other services.
After a contract-signing scheduled for Feb. 23, Tseng and Peng will be the only people who will look after Hohsing Station -- a wooden structure built during the period of Japanese occupation and sporting a red tile roof and green walls -- and surrounded by a white wooden picket fence.
Hohsing Station has the only "reversible rails" in Taiwan in its vicinity -- a rare historical asset -- as well as a waiting room that is similar to that of an old-style Japanese railway station. There are also several cherry trees in the station's backyard which make the station look much more beautiful.
Tseng said he and his wife would invite volunteers -- "who must be lovers of the railway and trains" -- to help maintain the Hohsing Railway Station.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing