The Taichung Bureau of Cultural Affairs on Sunday said it would request that the government grant national heritage status to Taichung City Hall, which was built during the Japanese colonial era as the seat of government of Taichu Prefecture.
The decision was made after Taichung City Councilor Wang Li-jen (王立任) of the Democratic Progressive Party said the city government was remiss in its duty to preserve cultural heritage sites.
Taichung City Hall was built as one of five prefectural government complexes that the Japanese built in today’s Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, Wang said.
While the prefectural government building in Kaohsiung was demolished in 1987, the remaining four have survived to become cultural heritage sites, he said.
However, of the four surviving buildings, only the one in Taichung has not been granted national cultural heritage status, he said, adding that it is only designated as a municipal heritage site and an upgrade is long overdue.
The prefectural government buildings in Taipei, Hsinchu and Tainan now house the Control Yuan, Hsinchu City Hall and National Museum of Taiwan Literature, he said.
The city government should consider asking the cultural affairs bureau to develop a way of utilizing the building that shows respect for its cultural and historic value, Wang said.
The bureau said the colonial-era structure is included in a Ministry of Culture program to restore historical sites and work is expected to be finished in 2020.
The city is paying NT$86 million (US$2.85 million) of the total construction costs of NT$215 million, the bureau said, adding that it would request that the central government confer national heritage status on the old city hall as soon as renovations are completed.
Any structure that meets the criteria stipulated by the government’s guidelines for national heritage sites should be considered as qualifying for the designation, the bureau said.
Those criteria are historical, artistic or scientific significance; being representative of an artistic style or architectural technique of a historical period; and being rare or difficult to recreate, the bureau said.
Taichung City Hall easily fulfills the criteria of historical and artistic significance, the bureau said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS