■ ENVIRONMENT
EPA urges online worship
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday urged the public to stop burning incense sticks and ritual money to honor the dead and opt instead for online worshipping to better protect the environment. The call came ahead of Monday’s Tomb Sweeping Festival. The practice not only worsens air pollution but could also cause fires, the EPA said. “We can now choose to pay homage to our ancestors in a modern and environmentally friendly way by worshipping online or donating the money meant for the offerings to charities,” it said in a statement. Environmental agencies have also offered to collect the paper money from households and temples to burn in state incinerators that can treat the exhaust.
■ TOURISM
Taiwanese look to heavens
Eight Taiwanese have applied to take part in a space journey at a cost of US$200,000 per person, according to Royal China Express, the Taiwan agent for Virgin Galactic, a space tourism operator affiliated with billionaire Richard Branson’s London-based Virgin Group. Virgin Galactic has collected fares from more than 330 aspiring amateur astronauts who are willing to spend big money to experience about six minutes of suborbital spaceflight, the local travel agency said. Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceship SpaceShipOne will be airlifted into the skies for its maiden flight at the end of this year after receiving approval from NASA, it said. The eight Taiwanese aspiring space travelers include a surgeon, engineers at the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, businessmen, and a couple operating a jewelry business, the travel agency said.
■ ARTS
Yo-Yo Ma prepares project
Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma (馬友友) has prepared a “Taichung Project” for his visit to Taiwan later this month that will include an outdoor concert for local music lovers to see “how a cello talks with stars in the sky,” Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said yesterday. “It is a music project especially for Taichung City,” Hu said as he and organizers announced the concert featuring Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, scheduled for April 24. In addition to the concert, the visit will include two seminars at which Ma will speak with local musicians. One will be aimed at young people between 12 and 18 years old, the organizers said. Hu said he expects the Taichung Project to “trigger a musical fever” in the city. Ma’s Taichung concert will be the only open-air performance of three he will give in Taiwan as part of his “Silk Road Project.” The other two concerts will be held at the National Concert Hall in Taipei on April 22 and at the Jhihde Hall in Kaohsiung City on April 25, the organizers said.
■ EDUCATION
Card goes multi-purpose
The International Student Identity Card (ISIC) issued to students in Taiwan has now become a multi-purpose card, an official of a cultural and education foundation said. The card, which was previously used mainly by students intending to travel abroad to obtain cheaper flights and other savings, can now be used as a student ID, an Easy Card for travel on public transport travel and an I-cash card, for making small purchases. “Five schools in Taiwan have so far signed up to use the ISIC,” said James Tsai, director of the Kang Wen Culture and Education Foundation, adding that more schools plan to adopt the cards. The ISIC is issued by the ISIC Association and is the only internationally accepted proof of full-time student status.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS