Christmas light displays around Taiwan are not putting a burden on the country’s electricity supply because many use energy--saving LED lights and are operating at a time when demand for power is not at its peak, state-run Taiwan Power Co said yesterday.
“Christmas light bulbs are consuming relatively small amounts of power. There is no problem with the electricity supply,” Taipower spokeswoman Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元) said.
Christmas light decorations have come under fire from environmentalists, with groups in Hong Kong saying that such decorations on buildings in the Victoria Harbor area consumed enough electricity to run 330 four-person households for a year.
Tu dismissed such concerns. She said Taiwan had seen record electricity use over the summer because of a surge in the use of air conditioners to combat the heat, but that was not an issue during the winter.
Many shopping malls and local governments in Taiwan have put up colored lights on streets or on Christmas trees to mark the arrival of the Christmas season.
Citibank Taiwan, for example, worked with the Taipei City Government and the Finland Trade Center, a Taipei-based foreign trade office, to install lights on trees and on overpasses in the Xinyi (信義) shopping district in Taipei on Saturday.
The Tainan County Government also put Christmas lights in the square in front of the county government office building.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it