Tourism operators asked Ilan County Commissioner Lu Guo-hua (呂國華) yesterday to extend the Taiwan Lantern Festival in Ilan City, which is scheduled to end on Sunday.
Chang Ching-lai (張清來), an executive member of the Taiwan Leisure Farming Development Association, along with several representatives of recreational farming and lodging businesses, paid a call on Lu earlier in the day and requested the extension, saying the event had drawn many visitors and created trade opportunities.
Chang said tourism in Ilan usually drops to a “super-low” level after the Lunar New Year festival. However, he said, thanks to the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which was held in Ilan this year for the first time, the occupancy rate at his hotel had increased five-fold compared with the same period last year.
He said the 10-plus foreign tour groups from Hong Kong and Singapore staying at his hotel all referred to the lantern festival, which began on Feb. 9, as “a must see.”
“Several foreign tourists have even said they wished their tour schedule allowed them more hours at the festival,” Chang said.
In response to the request, Lu said that an extension to the festival would involve negotiating the many contracts that the organizers signed with performing groups. However, if this issue could be worked out and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications agreed to the proposal, he would be delighted to see the event prolonged, the county commissioner said.
The Taiwan Lantern Festival, organized by the Tourism Bureau and the Ilan County Government, has attracted tens of thousands of visitors every day since it opened.
Because of the large number of people traveling to Ilan City for the festival, most major roads between the city and the surrounding townships have been frequently congested, with the worst traffic conditions occurring over the last two weekends.
The Toucheng toll station on the Taipei-Ilan Freeway recorded some 74,000 vehicles on the highway on Valentine’s Day.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
RSS