FISHERIES
EU inspection expected
A new round of evaluations on efforts to combat illegal fishing is expected in March, a spokesperson for the EU said on Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Taiwan and the EU have always had a positive and constructive dialogue on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and it welcomes the nation’s efforts on the issue. EU inspectors would conduct an evaluation in March, the spokesperson said. The EU in October 2015 placed Taiwan on its “yellow card” watch list for insufficient cooperation in IUU fishing. Since then, EU officials have visited every six months to see how the issues are being addressed. The previous time they were here for an evaluation was in October last year, but no decision has been made by the EU to lift the warning imposed on Taiwan.
TOURISM
Wuling controls announced
Crowd controls would be implemented in the Wuling Farm (武陵農場) area in central Taiwan during the cherry blossom season from Feb. 7 to Feb. 27, the Directorate-General of Highways (DHG) said. The number of visitors allowed to enter the area in the period would be capped at 6,000 per day, with 1,800 being overnight visitors and 4,200 single-day visitors, the DHG said. The 4,200 day visitors would be limited to 1,000 in tour groups and 3,200 independent travelers using public transportation, it said. The farm said that its Taiwanese cherry trees at the farm have already started blooming, about one month earlier than last year, with about 70 percent already in full bloom. Other varieties at the farm include the oshima, yaezakura and wusheh, which account for more than 30,000 cherry trees in the area.
TOURISM
‘Guardian’ ranks Taiwan
British newspaper the Guardian listed Taiwan as one of its top 40 destinations worth visiting this year. The Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, which opened on Oct. 13 last year, features prominently in the article for Taiwan. The center is “just one reason to explore beyond the capital, Taipei,” the newspaper said. Formerly a military training base, the center spans 9.9 hectares and was designed by Francine Houben, founder of Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo. The newspaper also mentioned the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which is to be held from Feb. 19 to March 3 at Dapeng Bay (大鵬灣) in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港) and two other locations.
TOURISM
Nation ranked 5th-friendliest
Taiwan was ranked the fifth-friendliest nation in the world for last year by customers of Booking.com — one of the world’s largest e-commerce travel companies. Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan, was chosen as the most friendly travel destination in the country, according to Booking.com, with Taiwanese travelers identifying the friendliness of a destination as an important element in deciding whether to visit. Australia, the Czech Republic, Poland and New Zealand were the top four countries on the list, while Romania, Hungary, Iceland, Serbia, and Greece completed the top 10, according to the Web site, which on Tuesday released the ranking as part of its Guest Review Awards. Last year, 759,845 travel accommodation providers in 219 nations and areas received a Guest Review Award based on guest comments. Italy retained the top spot with 106,513 lodgings winning awards, while Taiwan was ranked 33rd, up three places from 2017.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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