WEATHER
Rain forecast for Christmas
Heavy rain can be expected all day today in the north, along with cold weather in areas north of Chiayi County, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. Temperatures will range from 14?C to 18?C, the bureau said, with rain clouds covering the entire nation. The bureau issued a heavy rain warning, saying that strengthening seasonal winds from the northeast would bring moisture. The forecasters said another cold front from China will arrive later today and send the mercury plunging below 10?C in areas north of Chiayi County. The chilly and wet temperatures will last until Tuesday, with the weather turning drier next week, reducing the chance of snowfall in mountainous areas, the bureau said.
TOURISM
Harbor winners announced
The Fisheries Agency has announced the 10 winners of the second annual “most charming harbors in the nation” competition. Forty-seven fishing ports were evaluated in the first stage of the event last month as part of government efforts to promote tourism and improve the image of the nation’s fishing ports, the agency said. Twenty ports ended up in the final 10 categories, which included titles such as “time machine,” “fairyland” and “seafood delicacies.” The finalists were voted on in an online competition and by fishery associations. Gushan Fish Harbor in Kaohsiung City won the top spot in the category of “time machine,” while Yanpu Fish Harbor in Pingtung County was selected as the village with the most delicious seafood. Taipei County’s Yeliou Fishing Harbor and Tamsui Second Fishing Port won in the categories of “geographical wonders” and “fairyland” respectively.
TOURISM
Attraction poll launched
The Penghu County Government has launched an online poll to select the top 10 tourist attractions in the county. It has shortlisted 30 tourist attractions found in Magong City (馬公), Husi Township (湖西), Baisha Township (白沙), Siyu Township (西嶼), Chimei Township (七美) and Wangan Township (望安). The attractions include beaches and wetlands, as well as historic sites such as the Erkan Historic Village (二崁歷史聚落) in Siyu. The finalists will be determined by online voters. As an added incentive, those casting ballots will be automatically entered in a draw that includes prizes such as free flights to Penghu and free hotel stays. The county’s contest Web site can be accessed at penghu.allad.com.tw/vote_1.html. The poll closes on Jan. 31.
AGRICULTURE
Tea expo opens
The second annual Taiwan International Tea Culture Expo opened at the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday. The majority of exhibitors have come from different parts of major tea producing areas in Taiwan. Exhibitors are offering tea samples and tea snacks to visitors and showcasing various teapots, antiques and calligraphy. In remarks at the opening of the show, Agriculture and Food Agency Deputy Director-General Yu Sheng-feng (游勝鋒) praised both the quality and safety of Taiwanese tea. “Taiwanese tea has been widely regarded as being one of the best quality teas in the world,” he said. “In recent years, we have been intensifying our efforts to test for pesticide residues in tea leaves to ensure safety.” The tea expo runs through tomorrow at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 2. Admission to the exhibition is free.
SOCIETY
Limited-edition car to visit
A limited-edition Aston Martin supercar costing more than NT$55 million (US$1.84 million) will arrive in Taiwan on Monday as part of an Asian tour. The vehicle, one of only 77 Aston Martin One-77 cars to have been built, is scheduled to be displayed in Taipei for one day, after visits to Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. The car will be shown in China after it leaves Taiwan. Sixty-six of the 7.3-liter luxury cars have been sold since the model was introduced more than a year ago, said Yun San Motors, the British automaker’s authorized dealer in Taiwan. About 10 of the cars were made available for the Asian market, it added.
SOCIETY
Workers can’t wait to quit
More than 52 percent of the nation’s office workers won’t wait to receive their year-end bonuses before they quit their jobs, according to the results of a recent online survey. The survey, conducted by 104 Job Bank, said 77 percent of the employees surveyed plan to change their jobs, of which 25 percent said they would start job hunting after they receive their New Year bonuses — the period considered to be the best time to change jobs. According to the survey, as a result of the economic rebound there will be 359,000 vacancies for 278,000 job seekers. Compared with this year, the number of companies planning to recruit next year has increased by 11 percent to 48 percent, according to the survey results.
CULTURE
MOCA showcases local artist
The Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MOCA) will soon open its first ever large-scale exhibition dedicated to a local artist, as it plans to showcase the versatile Ni Tsai-chin (倪再沁) and his 30 years of work that offer a window onto the evolution of contemporary Taiwanese art. MOCA director Shih Jui-jen (石瑞仁) said the solo exhibition titled Mediaholic: Arts of Ni Tsai-chin, which opens today, will mark the first time the 10-year-old museum has dedicated the majority of its space to a single Taiwanese artist. “Ni is one of the very few interdisciplinary artists working across, and sometimes in between, the boundaries of different art forms, including literature, painting, sculpture and installation art,” Shih said. The solo exhibition, which runs through Feb. 13, will also showcase Ni’s landscape paintings, his involvement in environmental and social issues, his “super flat” series and his most recent sculptures.
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