Golden Beach, a popular attraction in the south, is at risk because of severe coastal erosion, local authorities said.
The pace of coastal erosion at the almost 4km long beach in Greater Tainan, with the base of its viewing platform suffering severe subsidence, has set alarm bells ringing at government agencies.
Some residents are also concerned about a possible collapse of the seawall, which could put their lives in danger.
Photo: Huang Po-lang, Taipei Times
The Greater Tainan Government and the Water Resources Agency’s Sixth River Management Office said they had been making an all-out effort to address the matter, with the former in charge of the viewing platform and the latter of the seawall.
“The public can rest assured because the subsidence has only affected the viewing platform, which is located outside the seawall ... The structure of the seawall is still pretty solid,” the two agencies said.
The agencies said that they would focus more on beach replenishment in the future to restore the beauty of the celebrated spot.
Chao Jui-kuang (晁瑞光), environmental and natural sciences manager at Tainan Community University, said his research shows that the beach has lost about 20m due to erosion in the past six years.
However, the estuary of Er-ren River (二仁溪), whose lower section marks the border between Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan, is facing a more alarming coastal erosion rate of more than 100m, Chao said.
Chao said that the foundations of a section of the viewing platform on the south side of the beach’s service center have suffered severe subsidence, with the platform’s southernmost side starting to crack about three years ago.
Saying that the beach is a popular attraction among Tainan residents, Greater Tainan South District administrator Liu Chi-chung (劉啟崇) said the viewing platform was built using simple construction techniques about 15 years ago by the administration of then-Tainan City mayor Shih Chih-ming (施治明) to better cater to tourists.
“A vessel-shaped service center was also erected at the time to serve as an administrative office for nearby parking lots,” Liu added.
Shortly after the two attractions were built, more tourists started flocking to the beach, especially during weekends, to watch the waves or enjoy the sunset on the viewing platform, he said.
“The beach’s success also drew scores of vendors who set up temporary stalls here,” Liu said.
However, the service center has been left idle after the city government outsourced the management of the center and the beach’s parking lots to private corporations.
The contracts were later suspended because of poor management, Liu said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the