The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday it will send an airline representative and the head of the Civil Aviation Association to landmark talks with China this weekend to set up two-way charter flights bringing Taiwanese business-people home for the Lunar New Year holiday.
"We have decided to appoint Michael Lo (樂大信) and Billy Chang (張國政) to organize a negotiation team to talk with the mainland side in Macau on Jan. 15," the MAC said in a statement released last night.
Lo, chairman of the Taipei Airlines Association (TAA), has already been authorized to represent the government in talks with China.
On Wednesday, Beijing said that, in addition to the MAC and its proxy the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation, it is "negotiable" for Taiwan to send officials like Chang, director of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, as consultants to talk with China.
The MAC yesterday called on China to live up to its words to speedily hold talks with Taiwan.
"We hope China's side can speedily inform us who will be on its negotiation list to talk with us and to confirm whether it agrees to the date proposed by us to talk," the MAC said in its press release.
If everything goes well, the charter flights will be the first in more than five decades to have planes from both Taiwan and China entering their respective territories for flight services.
The two sides have reached a tacit understanding that this year's holiday charter flights will be "bilateral, reciprocal and non-stop," unlike the flights in 2003, when Taiwanese airlines had to fly empty to Shanghai to pick up Taiwanese and bring them back with stopovers in either Hong Kong or Macau.
This time, the two sides will also talk about expanding the flight points to at least Beijing and Guangzhou, in addition to Shanghai.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
RSS