Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday pledged to transform Shajhu Bay (沙珠灣) in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District (金山) into an incubator for professional surfers and make it an even more popular tourist spot.
When Su was running for New Taipei City mayor last year, he promised to remediate all 126km of the municipality’s shoreline, to “set the stage for its beauty to be seen by all,” in the hopes that it would encourage northern Taiwan’s approximately 10 million residents to visit the bay.
Su yesterday inspected the area accompanied by his former campaign rival, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜).
Photo: CNA
The premier said the subject of developing the bay was brought up by Hou on Thursday at the Cabinet’s weekly meeting, so he decided to inspect the area himself.
The bay is known as one of the nation’s finest surfing paradises, and with surfing having been officially listed as a category in next year’s Tokyo Olympics, it could serve as an ideal incubator, Su said.
The nearby Jhongjiao Elementary School already has a program to cultivate young surfers, he added.
Making the area a well-known surfers’ training ground would have the double benefit of attracting tourists, which would benefit the local economy, Su said.
However, to realize the goal, the central and local governments must first solve the problem of the area’s limited space, which would involve the Forestry Bureau clearing windbreaks, the New Taipei City Government freeing up land, as well as land acquisition and expropriation, he said.
Apart from land expropriation and acquisition costs, the Cabinet would fully finance the project to transform the bay, he said.
Su said he would ask the Tourism Bureau to explore ways to make the bay a training site for surfers and the Ministry of Education to create a subsidy program for the elementary school to train surfers.
If the project is a success, it would not only make the area a highlight in New Taipei City, but also bring the municipality business and serve as an example for future projects to live up to, he said.
When asked about online comments that Hou had been “copying his policies,” Su said he did not see it that way.
“Mayor Hou has been chosen by voters, so I believe he has many things he wants to accomplish,” he said.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas,” the US military said yesterday, as tensions between China and Taiwan raise concerns in Washington. US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the strike group entered the South China Sea on Saturday, the same day Taiwan reported a large incursion of Chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification zone near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). The US military said the carrier strike group was in the South China Sea, a large part of which
STRATEGIC MISTAKE: Beijing’s deployment of aircraft near Taiwan proves the ‘China threat theory’ that sees it attempting to destabilize the region, an analyst said China on Saturday and yesterday sent a record number of military aircraft into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in what analysts said was an attempt to flex its military might for US President Joe Biden. Thirteen Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ on Saturday and 15 entered yesterday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. On Saturday, eight Xian H-6K bombers, four Shenyang J-16 fighters and a Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, entered the ADIZ, while yesterday there were two Y-8s, two Su-30s, four J-16s, six J-10 fighters and a Y-8 reconnaissance
DISPOSING MYTHS: A new constitution would better reflect reality, as the current one was drafted ‘in and for China,’ without the consent of Taiwanese, advocates said Independence advocates yesterday launched the Taiwan New Constitution Alliance to promote drafting a new, localized constitution. “This is a historic moment for Taiwan. Drafting a new constitution is the most important task Taiwanese face,” veteran independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said at the inaugural event in Taipei. “Although the Democratic Progressive Party is in power, its authority is based on the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution, which has no connection to Taiwan,” said the 95-year-old Koo, a former presidential adviser. “The historic task of drafting a new constitution depends on efforts by all Taiwanese,” Koo said. “A constitution for a sovereign, independent Taiwan
RSS