With the big heat of summer just around the corner, the mass weekend exodus to the beaches of northern Taiwan is once again fast approaching. Since three or four of Taiwan’s finest are just an hour or so from the capital, a day beside the sea is a popular choice for Taipei residents.
Sadly however, all is not well on northern Taiwan’s beaches. Carelessly dropped trash continues to be a problem, greatly magnified by a huge volume of garbage swept in from overseas on the incoming tide. The good news is that there are many people, both Taiwanese and foreign residents, who are determined to do something about it. Among them are Ryan Hevern and Dustin Craft, the two American guys behind Taiwan Adventure Outings (TAO), an outfit they founded in late 2015.
Hevern says TAO was set up “as a means to get outdoors ourselves, to explore new places in Taiwan and to meet new people who had the same drive to be adventurous.”
Photo courtesy of Ryan Hevern
Hevern says the outfit wanted to give something back to the community and the environment by hosting monthly beach and forest cleanups, as well as connecting travelers with small-scale local tourism initiatives that would expose people to the nation’s beauty, culture and adventures, as well as providing opportunities to contribute towards maintaining these beautiful locations.”
Hevern and Craft organized an initiative on May 20 called Taiwan National Clean Up Day, their biggest and most ambitious cleanup operation to date, involving a total of 10 groups working to clear trash from parts of Taipei City and Yilan County.
The majority of the sites targeted were popular beaches, but four of the groups worked to clear trails in the area around New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪), where fallen sky lanterns continue to mar the landscape despite local efforts to retrieve them.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Hevern
Hevern says that beach clean-ups can be potentially dangerous.
“Unfortunately, we find hypodermic needles every clean up.” Hevern says. “One time in Shalun Beach in Tamsui we found 37 of them in the sand.”
It’s hard and potentially risky work cleaning up Taiwan’s beaches and mountains, but the efforts of the volunteers didn’t go unappreciated last weekend. According to Jan Willem Overmars, one of the volunteers, “Drivers and passengers were encouraging our cleanup: cheering, clapping, [and giving us a] thumbs up. This kept us going.”
Hevern says anyone can play a part in improving the local environment.
“Everyone on a hike or outdoor adventure can take back garbage they find. Beyond this we can also take steps to reduce our consumption of plastic. Bring your own chopsticks and spoons, metal straw and thermos [when you go out to eat]. Resist using a plastic bag when you buy something in a shop.”
To sign up for future TAO cleanups, head to their Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/505284866320444
There is no politician today more colorful than Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯). The recall vote against her on July 26 will test the limits of her unique style, making it one of the most fascinating to watch. Taiwan has a long history of larger-than-life, controversial and theatrical politicians. As far back as 1988, lawmaker Chu Kao-cheng (朱高正) was the first to brawl and — legend has it — was the first to use the most foul Taiwanese Hokkien curse on the floor of the legislature. Current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) has become famous
Crop damage from Typhoon Danas “had covered 9,822 hectares of farmland, more than 1.5 percent of Taiwan’s arable land, with an average loss rate of 30 percent, equivalent to 2,977 hectares of total crop failure,” this paper reported on Thursday last week. Costs were expected to exceed NT$1 billion. The disaster triggered clashes in the legislature last week between members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and China-aligned lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) argued that opposition lawmakers should take responsibility for slashing the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MOA)
July 14 to July 20 When Lin Tzu-tzeng (林資曾) arrived in Sansia (三峽) in 1830, he found the local conditions ideal for indigo dyeing. Settlers had already planted indigo across the nearby hills, the area’s water was clean and low in minerals and the river offered direct transport to the bustling port of Bangka (艋舺, modern-day Wanhua District in Taipei). Lin hailed from Anxi (安溪) in Fujian Province, which was known for its dyeing traditions. He was well-versed in the craft, and became wealthy after opening the first dyeing workshop in town. Today, the sign for the Lin Mao Hsing (林茂興) Dye
Asked to define sex, most people will say it means penetration and anything else is just “foreplay,” says Kate Moyle, a psychosexual and relationship therapist, and author of The Science of Sex. “This pedestals intercourse as ‘real sex’ and other sexual acts as something done before penetration rather than as deserving credit in their own right,” she says. Lesbian, bisexual and gay people tend to have a broader definition. Sex education historically revolved around reproduction (therefore penetration), which is just one of hundreds of reasons people have sex. If you think of penetration as the sex you “should” be having, you might
RSS