TOURISM
Tourists satisfied: survey
A recent survey seeking feedback from Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan found they were mostly satisfied with their visit, the Tourism Bureau said on Wednesday. The poll results showed that 92.17 percent of respondents did not agree with the criticism that they have to “get up earlier than a rooster, travel faster than a horse, sleep later than a thief and eat worse than a pig” to complete their itineraries. The authorities have been controlling travel quality for the tourists through means such as setting a cap on the working hours of tour bus drivers, the bureau said. Meanwhile, tourism industry associations said they have been able to communicate with their clients about what to expect during the tours, while the bureau continues to rate local hotels. The system, introduced in 2010, is aimed at helping international travelers to find accommodation that conforms to international standards.
DIPLOMACY
MOFA reports on earthquake
No Taiwanese casualties or deaths had been reported as of yesterday in the wake of a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck off the coast of Guatemala on Wednesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesperson Steve Hsia (夏季昌) said. Hsia’s remarks came shortly after the strong earthquake hit the Central American country, reportedly leaving at least 39 people dead and more than 100 injured. Taiwan’s ambassador to Guatemala has expressed sympathy to the Guatemalan government and has offered to provide assistance in the wake of the disaster, Hsia said. However, the country has not yet asked for help from Taiwan. The earthquake shook buildings in the capital, Guatemala City, and landslides blocked roads in some areas, according to reports.
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