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Taiwan Quick Take

■ POLITICS

University apologizes
National Cheng Kung University apologized to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday for a student demonstration during Chen's speech at the school's 76th anniversary ceremony. The university issued a statement apologizing to the audience and president for the disturbance outside of the school. Six students on a sports field held up banners that read "designate Lo Sheng Sanatorium as a historic site" The group was taken away by security personnel. The sanatorium for sufferers of Hansen's Disease, also known as leprosy, was built under Japanese colonial rule in 1930 in Sinjhuang (新莊), Taipei County. The Taipei City and Taipei County governments are demolishing the facility to make way for the Xinzhuang MRT Line. Residents and human-rights advocates have refused to abandon the hospital and the Council for Cultural Affairs has sought to have it turned into a historic site.

■ LANGUAGE

Taipei rejects Tongyong
The Taipei City Government will continue using Hanyu Pinyin for place names despite the central government's decision to adopt Tongyong Pinyin nationwide by the end of this year, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday. "In order to connect with the rest of the world, the city will continue to use [the Hanyu] Pinyin Romanization system," Hau said. A Ministry of the Interior official announced earlier this month the government would use the locally developed Tongyong system for street and place names nationwide. Street and place names across the nation range from Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin to Wade-Giles and variations of Wade-Giles spellings. Hanyu Pinyin is used in China and is the most common system for teaching Chinese as a foreign language elsewhere.



■ SOCIETY

ID cards missing in bulk
The public may be growing forgetful, a lawmaker said yesterday, as large numbers of ID cards, healthcare cards and passports are being reported missing. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Chao-jung (陳朝容) told a press conference that Ministry of the Interior statistics showed household registration offices had replaced 2.5 million lost ID cards in the four years to September. In the same period, the Bureau of National Health Insurance reissued 3.39 million healthcare cards, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs replaced nearly 80,000 passports, Chen said. If lined up in a straight row, the lost cards and passports would extend more than 500km, he said. Chen urged the public to be more careful to avoid becoming victims of identity theft.



■ SOCIETY

Nation takes a hike
The first 1111 National Hiking Day was held yesterday, with more than 15,000 people leaving their homes to hike. Addressing the opening of the event in Taipei, which kicked off at 9am to coincide with similar launches around the nation, Sports Affairs Council Minister Yang Jong-her,(楊忠和) urged the public to get more exercise and suggested that hiking was the easiest and cheapest way to do so. Yang said he hoped the public would change the common greeting phrase "Have you eaten yet?" to "Have you exercised yet?" Chi Cheng (紀政), an Olympic Games bronze medalist, said walking 10,000 steps a day was the best way for busy people to stay healthy.
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