A 112-year-old lighthouse on one of the outlying islands of Matsu has been upgraded to a national historical monument, with a ceremony marking the event to be held on July 1, Lienchiang County Cultural Affairs Department Director-General Wu Hsiao-yun (吳曉雲) said.
Dongyong Lighthouse in Lienchiang County’s Dongyin Township (東引) was first designated a national historical landmark by the Council of Cultural Affairs in 1988, but it was later downgraded to a county heritage site following changes to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法).
Lienchiang County had been fighting for the lighthouse to reattain its status as a national landmark since 2008, Wu said.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
The county’s appeal gained ground after a restructuring of the Executive Yuan, which transferred management of the lighthouse from the Ministry of Finance’s Customs Administration to the Ministry of Transportation and Communication’s Maritime and Port Bureau, whose director-general, Chi Wen-jong (祁文中), supported the application, Wu said.
The European-style lighthouse situated on the slope of Shih Wei Mountain (世尾山) was built with financing from the British government a year after the British steamer SS Sobraon ran aground and sank near Dongyin Island in 1901, the Matsu National Scenic Area office said.
Although all passengers and crew survived the shipwreck, the shipping firm suffered heavy losses, and with the opening of maritime traffic to the Port of Sandu, it was decided that a lighthouse was necessary to mitigate navigational risks.
The lighthouse used to be a strictly restricted facility and lighthouse workers lived with their families in an adjacent dormitory, and raised their own chicken and pigs for meat.
The materiel and comforts provided by the lighthouse was said to be the envy of local residents, who nicknamed the facility “the Dongying Mansion,” which has stuck to this day.
The elegant structure has become a major attraction for tourists — including South Korean, Chinese and Western visitors.
Lienchiang County Commissioner Liu Tseng-ying (劉增應) said he was glad to see the lighthouse’s designation as a national historic monument, adding that he hoped the Maritime and Port Bureau and the Department of Cultural Affairs would invest resources in the lighthouse to promote tourism on Matsu.
The lighthouse could become a third attraction in addition to Matsu’s famed rare Chinese crested tern and bioluminescent blue tide, Liu said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS