The Maokong cable car system, a municipal project aimed at developing tourist and recreational potential in the Muzha (
The cable car, which travels between Maokong (貓空), a popular destination for tea-tasting, and Taipei Municipal Zoo, is also designed to ease traffic over the mountain and shorten traveling time to Maokong to about 13 minutes.
According to Lee Shu-chuan (
"The completion date keeps being delayed because the nine-month test run period can't be shortened," Lee said yesterday during the launch ceremony of the test run period at the cable car's Taipei Zoo Station.
The cable car system was built and installed by POMA, a French company, and has five sections, six intermediate terminals, 145 cabins and two cable loops. The line is 4km with a capacity of 8 passen-gers per cabin, transporting 2400 passengers per hour at 6m per second. A one-way ticket will cost NT$50 (US$ 1.50), Lee said.
Attending the launch ceremony, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"But I hope that the operation of the cable car will help to develop the recreational industry and bring prosperity to the southern area of the city," Ma said.
The New Construction Department planned to finish the project before Ma finished his eight-year term by the end of this month to add one more construction to his municipal achievements, but the French company insisted that the nine-month test run period could not be shortened.
Although the cable car passes through attractions including the zoo, Maokong and Chih-nan Temple (
Ma yesterday also led the press to visit several other major municipal constructions, including Taipei Arena, Taipei Songshan Airport Underpass, Neihu Technology Park, and Nankang Software Park.
During his "graduation tour" before leaving the city government, Ma recounted the city government's successes in building the city-wide wireless system, expanding MRT lines, and renovating sidewalk pavements, and said he expected Taipei Mayor-elect Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) to continue projects including the renovation of traditional markets.
After finishing his term as Taipei mayor, Ma plans to focus on his duty as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman.
Ma pledged to continue the reform efforts in the KMT.
"As for the mayoral special allowance scandal, whether or not it will influence my bid in the 2008 presidential election is not that important to me ... What matters most is to let people know that I am a person with consistency," he said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan