Applications to operate guesthouses in Dasi District’s (大溪) historic area open on April 16, as part Taoyuan’s initiative to breathe new life into old buildings, the city’s Department of Tourism said.
In 2012, Dasi ranked first among the top 10 small tourist towns in the nation selected by the Tourism Bureau, Taoyuan Department of Tourism Director Yang Sheng-ping (楊勝評) said.
Dasi attracts crowds of tourists on weekends and holidays, but operating guesthouses had been restricted until the Regulations for the Management of Home Stay Facilities (民宿管理辦法) were amended last year, Yang said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
Businesses can now establish guesthouses in the city’s Fusing District (復興), leisure farm sites, scenic areas and a limited area in historic and cultural sites, he said.
According to the new regulations, a maximum of eight guesthouses will be allowed in Dasi’s historic area, Yang said.
In line with the Taoyuan Department of Urban Development’s initiative to enliven old buildings, the Taoyuan City Government is to offer subsidies of up to NT$400,000 (US$13,726) for structural renovations and NT$900,000 for interior renovations, Yang said.
The city’s Scenic Area Service Agency also has a NT$100 million plan to turn Dasi into a slow-tourism destination.
In April last year, a three-phase reconstruction project of Dasi’s Jhongjheng Park (中正公園) and nearby walkways began.
However, the Taoyuan Department of Cultural Affairs on March 14 halted the project — which is currently in its second phase — after local residents voiced concerns that the former site of the Japanese colonial-era Dasi Shrine would be destroyed.
The second phase of the reconstruction project includes improvements on the wooden platform that holds a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), public restrooms and the Chaoran Pavilion, which was built on top of the remaining foundation of the Dasi Shrine, the agency said.
A spinning-top shaped slide was supposed to connect the top floor of the pavilion to the ground level, the agency said, adding that the construction workers covered the site with canvas to protect it from damage even though the former site of the Dasi Shrine was not listed as a historic site.
Since the township’s residents have raised concerns over the construction method, the agency is to send its construction plan to the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs for review before resuming construction, it said.
The park in Dasi is at the center of local residents’ lives and is a cultural landmark, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said on Saturday after visiting the park.
Taking into consideration the conservation of cultural heritage, the city is to temporarily stop the construction of the spinning-top shaped slide, Cheng said, adding that the Scenic Area Service Agency is to search for a different location for the slide.
Work on the rest of the reconstruction project can resume after the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Cultural Heritage Section gives the green light, he added.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400