Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), several Kaohsiung City Government officials and representatives from a local environmental group yesterday jointly signed a public declaration publicizing their determination to preserve the city's wetlands.
By signing the declaration, Chen said she was reinforcing a campaign promise to complete a project that will connect Kaohsiung's wetlands to form a green wetland corridor.
The public signing was held by the city government's Maintenance Office of Public Works Bureau at the Chouchai Wetland (洲仔濕地) in Zuoying District (左營). The event marked World Wetland Day, which fell on Friday.
The bureau said that through the city government's efforts to purify its rivers, Kaohsiung residents can now enjoy a dialogue with nature at the city's many wetland parks.
Director-General Yang Ming-chou (
Visitors can take an ecotour around the wetland parks and appreciate the ecological beauty under the guidance of Wetlands Taiwan, he said.
There are currently five major wetland parks in Kaohsiung: the Neiweipi Cultural Park (
Most of the wetland parks are located in the city's Sanmin (三民), Zuoying and Nantzu (楠梓) districts.
Visitors planning a weekday trip to the Chouchai Wetland park must file an application to the office seven days in advance. No advance application is required every second weekend, officials said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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