I was walking down the street with a friend weeks ago when he suddenly stopped outside a cafe. It wasn't a cup of coffee he wanted. Instead, he pulled his Palm Pilot out of a book bag and started futzing with it.
"I want to check my e-mail," he said.
He'd visited this same cafe weeks earlier when he learned they offered a Wi-Fi WLAN, or wireless, Internet connection and paid for the time he'd used along with a cappuccino and slice of chocolate cake. While the cake and cappuccino were long gone, the set-up information they provided still allowed him to access the Web; something he had done most every day since. Such are the Wild West days of the wireless frontier.
Of course, not everyone's getting wired and they may not be as fortunate as my friend in finding a free ride. But with Taipei's ambitious plans for Internet and wireless access development, there are sure to be plenty of options just round the corner.
In a lengthy speech given last year, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-yeou (
"Given Taipei's limited physical space," Ma said, "If we want to build this city into a competitive international metropolis, forging ahead into the 21st century, it is imperative for us to break away from the traditional mindset of building the city on its physical space. Instead, we should seek to build Taipei as a cyber city based on a vision of cyberspace rather than physical space."
Actually, government efforts at wiring the city were recognized in 2002 when it was presented with the Public Sector Excellence Award by the World Congress on Information and Technology, but more continues to be done.
Taipei city hall has been outfitted with a wireless network, making it easier for municipal staff to exchange information, conduct meetings, give presentations and search for information. The general public, too, can enjoy wireless access in the cafes and restaurants inside the building. "In the future," according to Ma's plans, "wireless services will be extended to major business districts."
The most ambitious of these plans is a proposal brought forth last October to rent space on all the traffic lights, streetlights and bus stops in the Xinyi district to wireless service providers like Chunghwa Telecom and Yam. They'd then be able to set up access points (APs), the transmitter/receivers wired to land lines that allow for wireless access.
If the plan is recognized, it would not only mean that visitors to the area would be able to check their e-mail while walking between Warner Village and the Taipei 101building, the city estimates that it would receive some NT$10 million from renting the required sites to service providers.
More recently, the city government has said that all MRT stations will be equipped with Wi-Fi networks by the end of December, with service to be provided by Chunghwa Telecom. More on both these projects as they near completion.
In addition to allowing citizens to go wireless, Ma wants them to be able to go device-less as well and is pushing for a number of "kiosks" to be set up. These kiosks will provide essential information and community services, as well as serving as free terminals for people who simply want to go online. So there's no need to start saving your Sun Yat-sens for a pricey PDA, should you happen to work in the Xinyi District.
Perhaps, though, all this talk of going wireless means nothing to you? If that's the case, Ma has your number, too. The city government, by drawing on the computerized resources and facilities of the government, schools, local communities and the private sector, hopes to make Taipei more Web-literate by offering all Taipei citizens a complimentary three-hour course on using the Internet as well as a free lifetime e-mail account.
More information on each of thes plans can be read in English at the city hall Web site at http://english.taipei.gov.tw/index.jsp. More detailed information in Chinese is available at the city government's Information Center, the department responsible for implementing the plans, at http://www.ic.taipei.gov.tw/.
Finally, for those ready to go wireless but not willing to wait for Ma to get out of the gate, there are a number of places in the city already wired. There are currently three companies offering wireless access, with Chunghwa and Yam offering the broadest coverage. Go to http://pwlan.hinet.net/where_search.php
In addition to city hall, all Dante Cafes and Kentucky Fried Chickens are wired, as is Sungshan Airport and the Taipei City Convention Center, and shopping districts such as Breeze Center and the New York New York Department Store.
Chunghwa currently charges NT$1 per minute of wireless access through the use of pre-paid cards that work, the same as pre-paid phone or cell phone cards. Subscribers to Chunghwa's dial-up or ADSL can use the service without application. Check out their English-language site listed above for more information.
Online out on the town
All Dante Cafes now offer wireless Web access, as do Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. All the instructions for access, however, are provided in Chinese.
One of the first locations for wireless Web access in the capital, fittingly, was Taipei City Hall, where visitors can surf the Web or check e-mail from anywhere in the building, including the cafes and eateries inside.
While it's not there yet, a plan is on track to install WLAN networks in all MRT stations by the end of this year. More information on that will be provided as the project nears completion.
Most ambitious is a plan to wire the whole of Xinyi District by renting traffic lights, bus stops and street lights to wireless service providers.
Chunghwa Telecom currently offers access in a number of locations, including Taipei International Convention Center, Sungshan Airport, New York New York Shopping Mall and the Breeze Center.
For a constantly updated listing of other locations Chunghwa Telecom services, check out http://pwlan.hinet.net/where_search.php http://pwlan.hinet.net/where_search.php . The search feature is in Chinese only but Chunghwa provides English-language information for setting up your service at http://pwlan.hinet.net/eng/index.html.
Wooden houses wedged between concrete, crumbling brick facades with roofs gaping to the sky, and tiled art deco buildings down narrow alleyways: Taichung Central District’s (中區) aging architecture reveals both the allure and reality of the old downtown. From Indigenous settlement to capital under Qing Dynasty rule through to Japanese colonization, Taichung’s Central District holds a long and layered history. The bygone beauty of its streets once earned it the nickname “Little Kyoto.” Since the late eighties, however, the shifting of economic and government centers westward signaled a gradual decline in the area’s evolving fortunes. With the regeneration of the once
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
On May 2, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), at a meeting in support of Taipei city councilors at party headquarters, compared President William Lai (賴清德) to Hitler. Chu claimed that unlike any other democracy worldwide in history, no other leader was rooting out opposing parties like Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). That his statements are wildly inaccurate was not the point. It was a rallying cry, not a history lesson. This was intentional to provoke the international diplomatic community into a response, which was promptly provided. Both the German and Israeli offices issued statements on Facebook
Perched on Thailand’s border with Myanmar, Arunothai is a dusty crossroads town, a nowheresville that could be the setting of some Southeast Asian spaghetti Western. Its main street is the final, dead-end section of the two-lane highway from Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city 120kms south, and the heart of the kingdom’s mountainous north. At the town boundary, a Chinese-style arch capped with dragons also bears Thai script declaring fealty to Bangkok’s royal family: “Long live the King!” Further on, Chinese lanterns line the main street, and on the hillsides, courtyard homes sit among warrens of narrow, winding alleyways and
RSS