The Jesus Church (耶穌堂), which was used exclusively by dictator Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife for their Sunday services, has made Sun Moon Lake one of the most popular destinations for newlyweds.
Tseng Kuo-chi (曾國基), director-general of the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area, said the church was built 37 years ago in the middle of the hill beside the lake. The church is bulletproof and solidly built, which enabled it to withstand the 921 Earthquake in 1999, he said.
Tseng said that the church is now the property of the Tourism Bureau. Along with the nearby Plum Lotus Garden (梅荷園) — which used to be a military police base — the lake has drawn many newlyweds and married couples for wedding photos or second honeymoons. The two places also attract couples from Singapore, Malaysia and China, Tseng said.
Starting today, couples having their wedding photos taken at Sun Moon Lake will receive souvenirs from the Tourism Bureau worth NT$1,000, Tseng said. The bureau will select 10 couples and arrange for them to have wedding ceremonies together at the Jesus Church on May 27. Each couple will be charged NT$5,200 for the service, which includes one night at a five-star hotel, a candle-lit dinner, breakfast, a boat trip on the lake and other souvenirs from the Tourism Bureau.
In related news, Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Director General Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) said yesterday that the CAA was in the process of negotiating with China about the possibility of increasing the number of cross-strait charter flights as more Chinese tourists were entering the country.
Taiwan and China jointly offer 108 charter flights per week. Statistics from the Tourism Bureau showed the number of Chinese tourists has increased from a total of 8,900 in July to 16,000 last month.
Approximately 7,200 Chinese tourists came between Feb. 27 and yesterday, for an average of 1,200 per day. The average will soon hit 1,500 as a total of 10,365 are scheduled to come between today and March 16.
Lee said that though both Taiwan and China were planning to launch regular cross-strait flights in July, the number of daily charter flights available at the moment could no longer serve the increasing demand. Lee, however, refused to say exactly how many charter flights the nation planned to add, saying that would be negotiated.
Contrary to Lee’s optimism, however, Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) at a separate setting yesterday said the county would reassess its strategy and work to attract tourists from Japan, Korea, North America and Europe instead as the revenue made from Chinese tourists was not as high as expected.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
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