When artist Chiang Hsun (蔣勳) visited Wangan (望安) in Penghu County last year, he did not plan to see or do anything out of the ordinary.
"I just wanted to roam around that island by myself, without any purpose or destination," he said in his essay "Notes on Wangan."
"The island [Wangan] was nothing more than a small dot on the map," he said. "I was not sure if I needed to spend the night there, nor did I have a scheduled itinerary."
The trip to Wangan, however, turned out to be a worthwhile adventure. With a local resident volunteering to show him around, Chiang saw old-style stone cottages that were abandoned years ago.
LARKS
On a small hill called Tientai (
Chiang said he remembered lying down on the grass on Tientai, waiting to see again what he called the larks' "suicidal performance."
Chiang is one of 30 national celebrities, travel writers and artists sharing their travel stories in a book titled Touring Taiwan (
JOINT EFFORT
The book was part of a project planned by Chunghwa Telecom Foundation and the Tourism Bureau.
Aside from Chiang, the book also features essays by hotel owner Stanley Yen (嚴長壽), writer and playwright Hsiao Yeh (小野), former manager of HP Taiwan Rosemary Ho (何薇玲) and filmmaker Lee Gang (李崗), brother of world-renowned director Ang Lee (李安).
A majority of the writers have chosen to tell about their travel stories along the east coast and in offshore islands.
Fifty writers were invited to take part in the project. While only 30 stories were chosen for the book, the other 20 stories were posted on the Web site Click Taiwan.
While the stories are only available in Chinese, organizers said English translations of the stories will soon be available.
Organizers also said this was a two-year project. They will start posting travel stories from the public, which will be chosen from a writing competition in April.
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the
RSS