■TOURISM
PRC medical tourists arrive
A 32-member medical tour group from China arrived in Taiwan yesterday for health check-ups, making it the first Chinese group to visit Taiwan for medical tourism since last July, when the government began allowing Chinese citizens to visit Taiwan as tourists. During their six-day stay, the members of the group are scheduled to visit six medical centers and hospitals. They are also expected to visit several clinics specializing in cosmetic surgery, the local travel agency that arranged the tour said. “Each member of the group is expected to spend 5,000 yuan (US$731) on their check-up,” an executive of the travel agency said. “Another group from China is expected to arrive in August for the same purpose if the first group is satisfied with its experience,” the executive said.
■ EDUCATION
City unveils English village
Kaohsiung City Government inaugurated the city’s fourth English village on Friday as part of its preparations for the World Games next month. “Creating an English learning environment for students in the city and cultivating their English speaking proficiency has become particularly important now that the games are fast approaching,” Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said. Like the other English villages in Kaohsiung, the village at Taiping Elementary School includes several real-life contexts — a simulated airport, hotel, shopping mall and a health store — for pupils to practice English. School principal Tsai Chin-yuan (蔡進元) said 12 recipients of the Fulbright Youth Scholarship will offer assistance to the school’s teachers in improving the English proficiency of students over the next 11 months. The other three English villages in Kaohsiung are located at Zuoying Elementary School, Fudong Elementary School and Lingjhou Elementary School.
■ TOURISM
KRTC launches bike shop
The Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) yesterday launched the nation’s first government-affiliated foldable bicycle rental shop at Zuoying Mass Rapid Transit Station. The service was introduced in a bid to encourage backpackers to tour the city. The rental rate is NT$100 for four hours, NT$200 per day, NT$380 for two days or NT$540 for three days, KRTC said. Those who are interested in renting the bike will only be required to leave an ID instead of a deposit, it said. KRTC general manager Yen Pang-chieh (顏邦傑) said it hoped visitors to the city would take advantage of the new service to gain a better understanding of the beauty of Kaohsiung.
■ TOURISM
Student is 2 millionth visitor
“I’m so lucky,” said a Hong Kong university student on Saturday when he learned that he was the 2 millionth tourist to Taiwan this year and received a NT$200,000 prize. Wong Chi Hoi (黃智凱), a sophomore at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport via a China Airlines flight on Saturday afternoon along with three of his friends for a backpacking trip. It is Wong’s first visit to Taiwan. He said he planned to tour scenic spots in Kaohsiung and Kenting National Park in Pingtung County. “The prize comes as a big surprise to me. I’m blessed ... I’ll share the prize with my friends,” said Wong who was also given a collection of gift items with a local flavor. The prizes are part of the Tourism Bureau’s efforts to attract more tourists to Taiwan. The 1 millionth visitor this year was a Malaysian who entered Taiwan from Taoyuan International Airport in April.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not