The Cabinet yesterday officially named the newly completed Taipei-Ilan freeway the "Chiang Wei-shui [蔣渭水] Memorial Freeway" in line with a proposal by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
"Chiang was Taiwan's nationalist pioneer and a person who inspired the value of democracy. He was also an Ilan native. It is a good idea to name this freeway after him," said Government Information Office Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
"Mayor Ma, who proposed this idea, said he affirmed and appreciated this decision as well," Cheng said.
Trailblazer
On Jan. 15, Ma and Ilan County Commissioner Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華) first proposed that the freeway be named the "Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway" because Chiang was an Ilan native as well as a trailblazer for Taiwan's democracy movement under Japanese rule.
In the 1920s, Chiang set up the Taiwan National Council and the Taiwan People's Party, the first political parties to be established in Taiwan. He was also the first person to seek to improve the status of Taiwanese during the Japanese occupation through the establishment of a democracy movement.
Cheng said Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) decided to make public the official name of the freeway because it will be opened to the public tomorrow.
Cheng also described the freeway as connecting technology, history and civilization.
"[The freeway] begins from Nangang, Taipei City, and goes through Pinglin, Taipei County, and then eventually enters Ilan County. We have high-tech industries in Nangang, famous tea production in Pinglin and historical sites in Ilan," Cheng said.
Freeway workers
On behalf of the premier, Cheng expressed gratitude to the technicians, architects and workers who devoted themselves to the construction of the freeway as well as its controversial Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道), which has become the fifth-longest tunnel in the world.
"On June 16, we will be very proud to prove wrong those who said that it would be impossible for us to finish the tunnel," Cheng said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition