Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors lashed out at the Taipei City Government yesterday over the plight of the Jiancheng Circle (建成圓環) in Datong District (大同).
The circle at the intersection of Chongqing N Rd and Nanjing W Rd was once the oldest food market in the city.
Former mayor Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration spent more than NT$200 million (US$6.17 million) to turn the market into a modern, two-story building housing 25 food booths and a performing arts center.
But it finally conceded that the project was a failure and closed the building in July 2006 after it failed to attract business.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration signed a management contract with a private company to reopen the circle last year.
DPP Taipei City councilors Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) and Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) accused the city government and the company of delaying the reopening of the circle at least six times in the past year and ignoring its development.
The government’s plan to reopen the circle as a food market with more than 20 food booths showed a lack of originality and would not help revive the facility, Chuang said during an inspection of the circle.
Since the circle was next to the Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市), which was famous for traditional snacks, reopening the circle as a food market would only prompt fierce competition between the two locations, Huang said.
Wang Meng-lung (王夢龍), a division chief at Taipei City’s Market Administration, could not explain to the city council why the reopening had been delayed, but said the city government would talk to the management company about reopening the site as soon as possible.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
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