The renovation and expansion of the National Palace Museum, which has been delayed for the past year and a half, will be finished in February 2006, the museum's director, Shih Shou-chien (
Shih held a news conference yesterday in response to a report in a local Chinese-language newspaper on Wednesday in which it was claimed that the museum was making no progress on the renovation and expansion project. The report predicted that the overhauled museum would be a dangerous building due to inadequate quakeproofing.
According to the report, the museum has done little more than erecting fences and controlling traffic around the buildings since it restarted the renovation project in March.
Shih yesterday rebutted these accusations, saying that almost all the construction projects were close to completion and that work on the underground passages would begin in weeks.
The renovation and expansion project was supposed to have been completed in May, but construction only started in March owing to its delayed budget.
Shih said that construction work for a museum was inherently more complicated than for other buildings, especially given that the National Palace Museum needs to be open year-round, which has further complicated the overhaul project.
"The museum houses the most precious historic artifacts of Chinese culture and would never hastily initiate a renovation plan that could endanger the artifacts and visitors. Everything we are doing conforms to the relevant government regulations," Shih said.
no delays
Shih promised that the museum, with its new appearance and improved functionality, would be opened to the public in February 2006 and that there would be no delays affecting the renovation projects.
Representatives of four construction management companies involved in the project also attended the news conference. They said that work was proceeding according to schedule and that all of the museum's quakeproofing measures had been approved by the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering.
A center official, Chang Kuo-chun (張國鎮), said yesterday that the center has spent three months reviewing the quakeproofing plans provided by the construction teams and could find nothing wrong.
steps taken
In response to complaints from both domestic and international visitors that they have been inconvenienced by the delays, museum vice director Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗) said that several steps have been taken to compensate for the inconvenience caused by the construction work, such as providing the public with a larger number of shuttle buses, discounted tickets and gift-shop items.
Lin said that it was the first time in several decades that the museum has had the opportunity to conduct renovation work and urged visitors to be tolerant of the temporary inconvenience.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS