Lantern sales at an annual bazaar held by the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families’ Changhua City branch hit an eight-year low, with organizers attributing low turnout to 2019 novel coronavirus fears.
The bazaar, which ends today, reported about NT$70,000 (US$2,324) in sales at a stall at the city’s Carrefour, representing a 70 percent drop from last year, while sales at a stall in Sanmin Market fell 60 percent compared with the previous year, the organization said yesterday.
As of yesterday, sales at stalls nationwide stood at about NT$1.8 million, down 45 percent from last year’s NT$3.1 million, it said.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
Since 2013, the fund’s local branches have sold lanterns leading up to the Lantern Festival, with proceeds going to the education and healthcare of children from disadvantaged families, branch director Wang Chen-kuang (王震光) said.
This year, people are avoiding going outdoors due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has negatively affected all 40 stalls set up by the fund nationwide, he said.
At some stalls, volunteers sometimes outnumbered customers, he added.
A person who passed by the branch’s stall at the intersection of Changhua’s Siaoyang and Minzu roads dropped a NT$1,000 bill in the donation box without taking a lantern, which moved volunteers working at the stall, Wang said.
The bazaar’s revenue typically amounts to about NT$3 million nationwide, he said.
Due to the outbreak, people just stayed home or passed by the stalls without stopping, which has made the fund a “victim” of the virus, he said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS