The Maritime and Port Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday officially replaced the Customs Administration to become the agency in charge of all of the nation’s lighthouses and navigation aids.
To mark the transition of management, the two agencies yesterday jointly unveiled a new lighthouse plaque at the solar energy-powered Keelung lighthouse.
Located in Keelung Port, the 11m-tall brick lighthouse was built in 1900 and the lighting system has a nominal optical distance of 16 nautical miles (29.6km). The nation has a total of 34 lighthouses, 44 light posts and 14 radar beacons, including those in Taiwan proper as well as in the outlying islands of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.
Photo: CNA
Maritime and Port Bureau Director-General Li Juel-der (黎瑞德) said the Customs Administration had since 1868 established an excellent system and traditions to manage the nation’s lighthouses.
The bureau will strive to maintain those legacies and seek to improve upon on them, he said.
Li also welcomed the employees from the Department of Marine Affairs, who previously managed the nation’s lighthouses at Customs Administration, to join the bureau.
Li said that the nation’s lighthouses were mostly buildings with long histories and were located in islands with diverse eco-environments.
Yuwongdao (漁翁島) Lighthouse in Penghu County, for example, has been in use since 1778. The granite lighthouse on Dongjudao (東莒島) in Lienchiang County (Matsu), on the other hand, was built in 1872 after the Qing Dynasty lost the opium war against the UK and was forced to open up ports along China’s east coast for trade.
Both lighthouses have been designated as national historical sites by the government, he said.
Li also mentioned the lighthouses in Sandiaojiao (三貂角) and Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼), both of which were famous for their unique architecture.
According to the bureau, six lighthouses are open to the public — at Yuwengdao, Dongjudao, Cape San Diego, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Dongyin Island (東引島) and Greater Kaohsiung.
Customs Administration Deputy Director Tseng Ching-yen (曾清煙) said his agency started building lighthouses and other navigation aids in seaports when the Qing dynasty employed British consular official Robert Hart as China’s second inspector-general at the Imperial Maritime Custom Service.
From 1863 to 1911, Hart facilitated the construction of lighthouses and established systems for tax and postal services, he said.
Though the Japanese government managed to build more lighthouses in the colonial era from 1895 to 1945, most of them were severely damaged during World War II, he said.
He said that the Customs Administration took over the management of the lighthouses in 1946 and immediately began restoration work on all the buildings.
Tseng said the nation in 2007 started following the regulations on navigation aids set by the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities, which ensured that the nation’s navigation safety standards are in synch with those of the international community.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS