SOCIETY
Ramadan tolerance urged
The Taipei City Government urged employers to show more tolerance and respect for Muslim workers during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of dawn-to-dusk fasting that begins today. Taipei is home to more than 40,000 migrant workers, of which 74 percent are Indonesian nationals, who are mostly Muslims, Taipei Department of Labor Commissioner Lai Hsiang-lin (賴香伶) said. During the period, Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink during daytime, but still need to work, which could be difficult, Lai said. She urged employers to respect the various religious beliefs of foreign workers to develop harmonious labor relations. To mark the end of Ramadan, the city is to hold a Eid al-Fitr celebration at the Taipei Travel Plaza near Taipei Railway Station on June 25, the Taipei Foreign and Disabled Labor Office said.
CUSTOMS
Undeclared cash seized
A Japanese man carrying more than US$88,000 worth of undeclared US dollar, Japanese yen and Singapore dollar bills had 88 percent of the cash he was carrying confiscated by customs officers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) on Saturday last week. The man, who was about to board a flight to Japan, was found to be carrying US$16,400, ¥4.3 million (US$38,460) and S$46,890 (US$33,865) in a suitcase, according to a news release from the Ministry of Finance’s Customs Administration on Monday. The officers allowed the man to leave with US$10,000, but confiscated the rest. Customs officers said passengers carrying cash or traveler’s checks in excess of US$10,000 are required to make a declaration when they pass through border control posts at airports or ports.
TAXES
Duty-free rules to change
The Ministry of Finance plans to lower the duty-free threshold for goods imported via mail to NT$2,000 from the current NT$3,000, probably starting in September. The measure is aimed at providing a fair playing field for domestic online shopping companies to compete with their overseas rivals, as well as to broaden the tax base, the ministry said. An implementation date has not yet been settled, as regulations on the clearance of imported and exported postal parcels need to be revised, it added. Meanwhile, people who frequently import goods via mail are to have to pay customs duties starting on July 1. Frequent mail is defined as mail sent more than six times to the same person or the same address in half a year. A duty is to be levied on goods mailed from the seventh time onward, with the calendar year divided into two periods: from Jan. 1 to June 30, and from July 1 to Dec. 31.
TOURISM
Taipei 101 tops attractions
The Taipei 101 skyscraper was named as the top landmark in the nation for the third consecutive year on a list published by US travel planning and booking site TripAdvisor. The “Top 10 Landmarks — Taiwan” list was released on Tuesday as part of the company’s annual Travelers’ Choice Awards, which ranks the world’s best destinations, attractions, hotels, restaurants and airlines based on the quality and quantity of user reviews gathered over a 12-month period. Taipei 101 topped the list, followed by Longshan Temple and the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei; Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum and Main Public Library in Kaohsiung; The Dome of Light stained glass ceiling at the Kaohsiung MRT System’s Formosa Boulevard Station; Baoan Temple in Taipei; Anping Tree House in Tainan; the Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei; and Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Kaohsiung.
TRANSPORTATION
Airport expansion to begin
A project to build a third terminal at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to get off the ground today and is scheduled to be completed in 2020, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said yesterday. The new terminal is expected to service up to 45 million passengers per year, more than the combined capacity of Terminals 1 and 2 at 35 million, the firm said, adding that work on the next phase of the NT$74.6 billion (US$2.48 billion) project is to start before March next year. Terminal 3 is to have 21 departure gates and be ready for full service a year after construction is scheduled to be completed, the company said. The design contract was awarded to British architectural firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, which has designed a wave-like ceiling to reflect the flow of passengers, the airport operator said.
TRANSPORTATION
Thousands use K-Bike
More than 12,000 people have used Kinmen County’s K-Bike public rental bicycle system since its launch on April 16, officials said. People can use a K-Bike free of charge for the first four hours, paying NT$10 for every 30 minutes thereafter up to a maximum of NT$150 per day, a discounted rate that is to continue until the end of August, they said. There are 29 pickup and drop-off points around the county, with 500 bicycles in service, officials said. Users can pay the rental fee with a credit card, Taipei’s EasyCard, Kaohsiung’s I-Pass or a China Union Pay card, which is issued by a Chinese state-owned financial services corporation and held by most Chinese tourists.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai