Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan Quick Take

■ Society
Giant rice cake complete
After working for two days and two nights, Wu Tien-chang (吳天彰) finally completed the nation's largest and heaviest migaotao (米糕桃), a sticky rice cake weighing in at 4.6 tonnes. The creation was put on display yesterday at Shoutien Temple in Nantou County's Mingchien Township (名間) and will be cut up and divided out to devotees in a cake cutting ceremony today. Wu, who has 30 years' experience making migaotao, was first asked by the temple to make one for temple devotees 15 years ago. The first one was a baby-sized version by comparison, but the size of the rice cake has increased every year. The migaotao is made outdoors, the whole process taking place inside a mosquito net to keep insects away. Five industrial-size fans are used to cool the sticky rice before it is formed into a cake.

■ Travel
Dogs sniff out contraband
Sniffer dogs at Taoyuan International Airport have managed to detect 70 tonnes of contraband farm produce over the past four years, inspection officials said over the weekend. Under quarantine regulations, incoming passengers are prohibited from bringing in fresh vegetables, fruit, live animals and plants, raw or cooked meat and related processed foodstuffs. However, many people bring back fresh fruit and meat from overseas trips. During the Lunar New Year holiday, garbage cans installed by the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine received 221kg of discarded fresh farm produce and meat products, officials said.

■ Economy
Electricity use increases
The country's total electric power generation reached 235.93 billion kilowatt-hours last year, an increase of 3.4 percent from the 2005 level, while consumption of electricity amounted to 221.37 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 3.43 percent year-on-year, the Energy Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Of the total power generated last year, state-owned Taiwan Power Co's thermopower generation accounted for 46.02 percent, followed by its nuclear power generation at 16.96 percent and hydraulic power generation at 3.38 percent. Electricity generated by private power plants accounted for 15.68 percent and cogeneration made up 17.96 percent. The industrial and energy sectors topped the list, accounting for 57.55 percent of the total power consumed last year, up 4.48 percent from the year-earlier level. Energy consumption by the transportation sector increased by 11.67 percent, followed by the financial, insurance, communication and warehousing sectors at 4.77 percent.

■ Travel
Singapore mulls route
Singapore Airlines may reopen the Singapore-Kaohsiung route that was closed in 2003 during the SARS crisis, reliable sources in local travel circles said yesterday. The sources indicated that Singapore Airlines was likely to resume its air service between Singapore and Kaohsiung in May. Singapore Airlines' Taipei office confirmed that the airline was working on such a plan after its recent assessment has established that a market demand for its Singapore-Kaohsiung route does exist at present, although the air route is currently served by China Airlines and EVA Airways. A spokesman for Singapore Airlines said that his company's plans had not been finalized yet.

This story has been viewed 1747 times.