A high-speed ferry carrying 360 passengers departed yesterday from Taichung for Meizhou Island off the coast of China’s Fujian Province, making it the first Taiwanese passenger ferry to sail directly across the Taiwan Strait to a Chinese port.
The Ocean Lala, a 2,292-tonne ferry built in Singapore, was mostly carrying pilgrims connected to the Da Jia Jenn Lann Temple in Taichung County.
The pilgrims were escorting two statues of the goddess Matsu (媽祖) from Jenn Lann Temple to the original Matsu temple in Meizhou.
Known as the “Mecca for Matsu followers,” Meizhou has long been considered the “home” of Matsu — a young woman who legend says was deified after being born into a fisherman’s family in Meizhou and later sacrificing her life to save her father and brothers.
The annual procession to honor Matsu — the guardian of fishermen and sailors and the most popular folk deity in Taiwan — has been observed for more than a century. Normally starting from Jenn Lann Temple, it draws thousands of followers.
After ending their pilgrimage to Meizhou, the Matsu followers will return home by plane with the Matsu statues on their special palanquins, said Cheng Ming-kun (鄭銘坤), pilgrimage leader and a vice chairman of Jenn Lann Temple.
Jenn Lann Temple chairman and Independent Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), who was paroled on Thursday after having been in prison since August for illegal possession of firearms, saw off the pilgrims in Taichung.
The Ocean Lala was scheduled to return to Taichung Harbor at around 9pm yesterday carrying Chinese tourists, harbor authorities said.
Previously, under Taiwan’s expanded “small three links” formula, the ferry was forced to use Penghu — about 41km off the southwest coast — as a transit stop before continuing to China.
Direct passenger shipping links were opened after the second round of cross-strait talks held in Taipei on Nov. 4.
Although the company that owns the ferry obtained permission from Taiwanese authorities to make four charter trips between Taichung and Fujian early this year, China only gave the company the green light this month.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS