The Taipei City Government on Monday next week is scheduled to reopen bidding for contractors to develop the area near Taipei Main Station — stretching from the site of the old city council building, and Taipei’s North Gate (北門) — to create a “museum strip” to cultivate a sense of cultured arts in the area, Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) said.
The project would establish more than six museums. Using paraphernalia from the old city hall building as the main exhibit, the site would become the Taipei City Vision Museum, Lin said, adding that the Beimen post office would become the Post Office Affairs Museum; the old Directorate-General of Highways Building — a city-designated heritage site — would become a photography museum; and the Mitsui Warehouse (三井倉庫) would become a museum of “memories.”
The sixth museum would be on rail transport, using the headquarters of railways building under the Japanese colonial government, Lin said.
The city government also said it planned to turn the pedestrian land bridge near the old city council building into a sightseeing destination.
In addition, the Taipei Department of Finance said low-level buildings would become part of the City Vision Museum project and headquarters for various non-governmental organizations, and mid-rise to tall buildings would become hotels or office buildings.
However, the city government twice put the contract out for tender in 2014 with no success and Department of Finance Deputy Director Chen Chih-ming (陳志銘) said the city government’s entitled premiums for the project has already been lowered to NT$32.2 billion (US$961 million).
Due to the 41 percent increase in current real-estate prices, the government has decided to lower the entitled premiums to NT$26 billion.
Lin said he hoped the spirit of culture and liberal arts would revive the area and that the museums would bring back bookshops along Chongqing Road, which had enjoyed a booming business tracing back to the Japanese colonial era.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
RSS