■ KAOHSIUNG
Free transportation offered
Kaohsiung City residents and visitors will enjoy free bus rides on national holidays next year, the city’s Transportation Bureau announced yesterday. The free rides will be offered on a total of 41 days, including the New Year holiday this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the six-day Lunar New Year holiday, Lantern Festival, Women’s Day, Tomb Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ten National Day, the bureau said. The offer begins at midnight on Thursday, the bureau said.
■ TRAVEL
MOFA defers fee raise
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday decided to give the public two more months to apply for, or to renew their passports with an embedded computer chip at NT$1,200, delaying a planned fee hike to NT$1,600 from Jan. 1 to March 1. To encourage the public to replace their 10-year passports with chip passports, the government initially said the preferential rate would expire at the end of this year. However, the Bureau of Consular Affairs and the ministry’s offices in central, southern and eastern Taiwan have been swamped with passport applicants, with the number reaching more than 10,000 per day. The ministry’s decision came after lawmakers across party lines made a resolution on the issue at the Foreign and National Defense Committee meeting yesterday.
■ ENVIRONMENT
EPA inks waste deal
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday announced a partnership with a number of electronics manufacturers to reduce packaging material by at least 10 percent next year. The move is expected to save up to 870 tonnes of packaging annually.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
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