TOURISM
Matsu restriction remains
Chinese visitors will continue to be prohibited from visiting a former military site on Matsu despite the island soon being opened to solo Chinese tourists. The Mt Yuntai Military Intelligence Building, located on the highest mountain of Matsu’s Nangan Island (南竿島), was built in 1996 to monitor the deployment of China’s military. It was later renovated and opened to tourists in November last year. However, to enter the structure visitors have to show identification to prove they are not from China, the Matsu National Scenic Area Administration said yesterday. Matsu, which served as the nation’s former military base against China, has a rich battlefield heritage that attracts tourists from across the Taiwan Strait.
IMMIGRATION
Thais offered trip home
Thai workers living in the country illegally or who have overstayed their visas are being offered a chance to return home by a Taiwanese businessman as part of a humanitarian gesture to celebrate Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 84th birthday. A National Immigration Agency official said yesterday that so far, 30 Thais have made contact with Thai-Taiwan Business Association president Norman Chang since the businessman announced his proposal two days earlier, and that he expects more to take up the offer as the monarch’s Dec. 5 birthday approaches. Chang said he would pay for overstay fines, flight tickets and other transport fees to allow the illegal workers to go back to Thailand. Chang held a meeting with Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功), director-general of the agency, who promised that the agency would assist Chang, in accordance with the regulations.
JUSTICE
Cop killer to be executed
The Supreme Court yesterday in a final ruling sentenced a man to death for killing two police officers. The ruling said that on Aug. 10, 1990, Wang Hsin-fu (王信福) and his friends Chen Jung-chieh (陳榮傑) and Lee Kuang-lin (李光臨) were eating at a restaurant in Chiayi City when Wang reportedly became angry at that the restaurant owner, surnamed Hung (洪), after he only attended to another two guests — the officers. Wang then instructed Chen to shoot the officers with a pistol. Chen, who was promptly arrested, was sentenced to death and executed in 1992. Wang fled to China for 16 years and was arrested in 1996 when he attempted to re-enter the country on a fake passport. The Supreme Court said Wang showed no remorse and said in court that “killing police officers was nothing.”
TOURISM
Fujian visits to islands near
Residents of China’s Fujian Province will be allowed to travel to Taiwan’s outlying islands near the southeastern Chinese province before the end of this month. Tourism Bureau officials aid the date would be discussed and announced by the two sides at the same time. The move will help boost visitors to Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu, the bureau said, adding that he hopes the program can be extended to travelers from other Chinese provinces and cities who travel to the islands via Fujian. Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Kao Charng (高長) said the two sides have reached a mutual understanding on most of the program and Taiwan is willing to move up the date. More than 100 tourists from China have shown interest in traveling to Matsu, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsao Erh-chung (曹爾忠) said, adding that he hopes the program could begin today.
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:
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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