No trip to Chiayi County is complete without an afternoon tour of the campus of National Chung Cheng University, considered to be one of the most beautiful schools nationwide and one of the most sought-after locations for an engagement photo shoot.
Located in the county’s Minsyong Township (民雄), the university was converted from a sugarcane farm in 1987 after the Ministry of Education gave the green light for its establishment.
The school was designed by Taiwanese architect Lee Tsu-yuan (李祖原), also the designer of the Taipei 101 skyscraper, and was modeled on the University of Cambridge in England.
Photo: CNA
It was chosen as the most beautiful college in the nation in an online poll conducted by search engine Yahoo in 2012.
National Chung Cheng University became a tourist hot spot after it was featured in the popular Taiwanese soap opera Meteor Garden (流星花園), which was based on the Japanese comic book of the same name and was first aired by Taiwan’s Chinese Television System in 2001.
Meteor Garden centers on the romance between a poor girl and a member of a group of four snobbish rich men at an elite high school.
The university made it onto the big screen recently after Taiwanese director Umin Boya (馬志翔) filmed his latest movie, Kano, at the school’s baseball field.
Kano features the story of a high-school baseball team composed of Taiwanese, Japanese and Aboriginal boys in Chiayi in 1929.
After Boya wrapped up filming for the movie, the school subsequently constructed an exhibition hall, named the Sport Story Museum (運動故事館), to preserve some of the movie sets and open them up to the public.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it