The Tourism Bureau on Thursday announced the first Taiwan Cycling Festival, which will take place in October and is expected to attract about 10,000 visitors during the week-long event.
“We hope to make this an annual festival, with this year serving as a warm-up,” Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said.
Lai said the festival would be held from Oct. 16 through Oct. 24 and focus on four cycling races: the Taiwan Cup, the Elites Road Race, the Self-Challenge Race and the Taitung Triathlon Race.
Except for the Taitung Triathlon Race, which has been held annually for about a decade, the other three are new races.
This year, the annual triathlon will be held from Oct. 16 through Oct. 17.
Lai said the Taiwan Cup and the Elite Road Race were competitive races that would be held on Oct. 24. The Taiwan Cup is a 200km road race in Hualien County, for which the bureau will invite cyclists who have competed in the Olympics, the Tour de France or other international cycling races, as well as those who belong to professional cycling teams.
She said the Elite Road Race would be held immediately after the Taiwan Cup and would be open to cyclists nationwide.
Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners in all the races.
The Self-Challenge Race, scheduled for Oct. 23 through Oct. 24, will give certifications to individuals passing different types of races, she said. Lai said the races would combine cycling with tourism and are very different from professional cycling races.
Lai said the bureau estimated the total cost for the events would be about NT$10 million (US$312,500).
The bureau hopes the events would attract about 10,000 visitors, including athletes and their families, Lai said.
Hotels and hostels in Hualien and Taitung have adequate capacity to accommodate them all, she said.
In related news, the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) said it was improving road conditions on some of the nation’s provincial highways to make them more cyclist-friendly.
In a survey of provincial highways, the DGH identified 10 sections of road that are not cyclist-friendly. Most are in the downtown areas with heavy traffic.
Others have a high volume of large-size vehicles.
Aside from changing road signs, the DGH will try to improve the “unfriendly” sections by charting out alternative routes for cyclists so they can avoid traffic during rush hour.
They will also set the speed limit for large-size vehicles at 40kph to ensure the safety of cyclists.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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