TOURISM
Macau tycoon to invest
A top official of a Macau-based hotel and casino giant yesterday said her company was making plans to invest in Taiwan’s hospitality and tourism sector. Pansy Ho (何超瓊), a co-chairwoman of MGM China Holdings and a daughter of Macanese gambling tycoon Stanley Ho (何鴻燊), told the Want Daily newspaper that “the likelihood of investing in Taiwan is pretty high because now is a good time.” She was referring to the opportunities provided by the nation’s recent opening to free independent travelers (FIT) from China. “The investment plans will target hotels, as well as travel and service-related businesses,” she said. “We would further like to serve as a bridge between Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, helping to set up business partnerships with Taiwanese companies.” She also suggested that Taiwanese enterprises should continue to come up with new business models to cater to Chinese FITs. “The current successful models might not attract Chinese tourists any longer because their demands and requirements are advancing really fast,” she said.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Hau, Shanghai sign MOUs
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) signed three memorandums of understanding (MOU) on cooperation in education, travel and medicine with his Shanghai counterpart in Shanghai yesterday. In a speech titled “Taipei’s 10 golden years after the Taipei International Flora Expo,” Hau outlined Taipei’s development plans for the following decade, while touting the city’s tourist and business attractions. Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng (韓正) said in addition to seeking further economic prosperity, Shanghai would reduce carbon emissions while developing into a comfortable place to live in. Hau, heading a delegation composed of Taipei City officials, councilors and representatives of the business sector, arrived in Shanghai on Sunday to attend a Taipei-Shanghai city forum.
ENTERTAINMENT
Parker visits famous sites
US actress Sarah Jessica Parker, known for her lead role in the TV drama Sex and The City, left Taipei yesterday after a three-day visit, during which she visited several iconic sites. Parker had been invited to an international ice figure skating show at Taipei Arena as the event’s ambassador on Sunday. She told reporters that she wanted to take the opportunity to witness the uniqueness of Taipei and enjoy Taiwanese food. She visited Xingtian Temple on Sunday. Amazed by the temple’s architecture, she showed interest in the history of the religious structure and lit incense to join the worship ritual.
EDUCATION
Center to open in New Delhi
A Taiwan Education Center will open on Monday in New Delhi, with the main goal of recruiting more students from India, National Tsing Hua University said on Sunday. The center, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, will be run by the school in collaboration with India’s O.P. Jindal Global University. The center will offer free Chinese language courses to Indian students, said Wang Wei-chung (王偉忠), dean of Tsing Hua’s Office of International Affairs. In addition, Tsing Hua will serve as a coordinator between Taiwanese and Indian universities seeking to form partnerships, Wang said. India is urgently seeking professionals in international commerce who are proficient in Mandarin, Wang said.
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