Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), which runs one of the nation’s largest bookstore chains, yesterday denied that it would soon end operations of its 24-hour bookstore on Dunhua S Road in Taipei amid preparations for an urban planning project.
“We thank everyone for their concern for the bookstore. The lease for the bookstore expires in 2020. We will continue to operate based on the terms of the lease,” the company said in a statement issued yesterday afternoon.
Eslite’s Dunnan store attracts many tourists to the world’s first 24-hour bookstore.
The bookstore is the company’s first and began operating 24 hours in 1999.
The store was chosen by CNN as one of the world’s “coolest” stores and drew interest from other international news agencies.
The Eslite branch occupies the first and second floors of the Dunhua Financial Building (敦南金融大樓), as well as three underground floors.
Media reports said the floors have been purchased by the Lin Yuan Group (霖園集團), which the reports said wants to convert them for mixed-use commercial purposes through an urban planning project that is to include a five-star hotel.
This led to speculation that the bookstore might cease to exist.
Cathay Life Insurance (國泰人壽), a subsiduary of Lin Yuan Group, issued a statement saying that the company has never owned the floors used by the bookstore.
Cathay Life Insurance said it owns no titles in the Dunnan Financial Building, having sold ownership of the third to 10th floors of the building, as well as parking lots on the fourth and fifth underground floors.
Exiled Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) said the bookstore is a “cultural landmark of Taipei.”
He wrote on Facebook that he would forever condemn Cathay Life Insurance if it were to close the bookstore to make way for a five-star hotel.
Additional reporting by CNA
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS