Eight out of 10 people in Taiwan and Shanghai and nine out of 10 Hong Kong people have trouble getting to sleep, according to a survey yesterday.
Ninety-one percent of people surveyed in Hong Kong, which has been rocked by a prolonged economic downturn and the SARS crisis, said they had sleeping problems compared to 83 percent and 80 percent in Shanghai and Taiwan respectively.
Sixty-two percent of Hong Kongers said they did not get enough sleep compared to 52 percent in Shanghai and 46 percent in Taiwan, according to the survey by market research company ACNielsen.
Forty-two percent of Hong Kong people said they woke up in the middle of the night compared to 38 percent of people in Taiwan and 37 percent of people in Shanghai.
Fifty-four percent of Hong Kong people said it took them more than 15 minutes to fall asleep compared to 43 percent of people in Shanghai and 41 percent of people in Taiwan.
Researchers say the findings are linked to Hong Kong's economic woes which have left people in the city worried about their jobs and the value of their property.
Joblessness has risen to an all-time high of nearly 9 percent in Hong Kong and property prices have fallen 65 percent from their 1997 peak.
Around 400 people from each territory were questioned for the survey, which was commissioned by UK health-care products chain Boots.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
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