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.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS