Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan Quick Take

■ TOURISM
Night market guide revised
The Taipei City Markets Administration Office has published a revised edition of the 2007 Taipei Night Market Handbook to encourage tourists to get a taste of the quintessential Taiwanese experience. The guide is available in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean and introduces the 14 most popular night markets around the city. The 83-page color handbook includes updated information on each night market and a special column on the different specialties they offer. The handbook is available at Taipei Railway Station, Songshan Airport, East Metro Mall, Miramar Entertainment Park, Yangmingshan Visitors Center, as well as the Beitou (北投), Ximen (西門) and Jiantan (劍潭) mass rapid transit stations. Three hundred copies will also be handed out at the Taipei Traditional Food Festival at Shinkong Mitsukoshi's Xinyi branch at 4pm on July 8. The handbook can also be downloaded from www.tcma.gov.tw/market/home/download.asp.

■ TRAVEL
Direct flights begin today
Cross-strait charter flights for the Dragonboat Festival are scheduled to start today, with carriers from each side operating a total of 42 flights during the holiday period. The flights will operate until next Friday, Civil Aeronautic Administration (CAA) officials said. This year, all six Taiwanese carriers will operate a total of 24 charter flights from Taipei and Kaohsiung to and from Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen during the holidays. Five Chinese carriers will operate a total of 18 flights from the four Chinese cities to and from Taipei and Kaohsiung. The Taipei-Shanghai route has proved to be the most popular this year, with Taiwanese carriers applying to operate 16 flights, CAA officials said. Taiwanese citizens with valid entry permits issued by the governments on the two sides are eligible to take the flights.

■ CRIME
Pastor faces new charges
A pastor with a prior conviction for molestation was questioned for allegedly sexually assaulting a female student, a prosecutor said yesterday. Tang Tai-shen (唐台生), 60, was accused of raping a female college student under the pretext of offering sex counseling, said Chang Chin-feng (張進豐), a spokesman for the Taoyuan Prosecutor's Office. Eight female staffers in charge of recruiting followers for Tang's movement were also accused of molesting 10 women during group sessions while Tang was present, he said. "The women alleged that Tang and his aides brainwashed them by telling them that they needed to understand their bodies before getting married and then molested them," the prosecutor said. Tang faces a maximum 10-year jail term if convicted of rape and a maximum five years if found guilty of molestation. Tang's wife told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) that the college student who brought the charges was mentally ill and that her husband was innocent.

■ TRAVEL
Caution urged in Spain
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday warned travelers to Spain to be especially vigilant following the Basque separatist group ETA's renouncement of a 15-month ceasefire last week. Sung Wen-cheng (宋文城), deputy director of the Department of European Affairs, said that ETA's announcement would have a big impact on Spain because it is the world's second-largest travel and tourism economy. Sung reminded travelers to be vigilant for their own safety when visiting Spain.


This story has been viewed 1846 times.