The Plum Garden, a historical building in Taipei City’s Beitou District (北投) that used to serve as a summer house for former Control Yuan president and calligraphy master Yu You-ren (于右任), opened to the public last week, adding a new tourist attraction to the area.
The garden was built in the late 1930s and was Yu’s summer getaway between 1949 and 1964. The characters Mei Ting (梅庭, plum garden), reprinted on a plaque at the entrance, were written by Yu.
The Taipei City Government listed the house as a historical building in 2006 and spent more than NT$18 million (US$560,000) in renovations to turn the garden, located in the Beitou Park, into a tourist attraction.
The 335m² wooden house preserves Japanese-style architecture from the colonial period.
The building, where Yu’s calligraphy works are preserved, is a cultural asset for the city.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the city government expected the house would become a gathering place for local residents and artists.
He said he hoped it would help promote local tourism and add a cultural spirit to the area.
To promote tourism in the area, the city government set up a visitor information center in the building with sightseeing information for tourists visiting the Beitou District, hoping to attract more tourists with many nearby attractions including the Beitou Library and Betou Hot Spring Museum.
The Plum Garden is open to the public between 9am and 5am from Tuesday to Sunday.
Tainan City Councilor Lu Kun-fu (盧崑福) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday sparked further controversy when he echoed remarks by KMT caucus whip Alex Fai (費鴻泰) that Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) should be executed for an increase in domestic COVID-19 cases. Chen heads the Central Epidemic Command Center. Lu at a question-and-answer session at the Tainan City Council said that a lapse in disease prevention measures at China Airlines, which has led to a cluster infection, could have been controlled. However, as the airline’s pilots were allowed a shortened quarantine period of three days and were placed
‘COLD ATTITUDE’: The man claimed that his wife of nearly 50 years had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years and that she refused to bathe A court last month rejected a man’s application for a divorce over lack of evidence that his wife “would rather feed stray dogs” than her husband. The 90-year-old man, surnamed Chao (趙), filed for divorce from his wife of nearly 50 years, surnamed Tung (董), saying that she had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years. “Every morning my wife goes to Gaoping Bridge to feed stray dogs and does not come home until late,” Chao said. “I am 90 and I need to be taken care of,” he said, complaining of his wife’s “cold attitude” toward him. Chao also complained in
The Taipei City Government yesterday officially launched the “YouBike 2.0” system, an upgraded version of the bicycle rental service, saying that it aims to expand the service to more than 1,200 stations throughout the city. The system yesterday activated 160 new stations, in addition to 103 stations in the Gongguan (公館) shopping area near the National Taiwan University campus. A trial run of YouBike2.0 was launched there in January last year. The Taipei Department of Transportation said that bicycles of the upgraded system feature solar panels and card censors, which allow users to rent them by swiping their EasyCard or scanning a QR
DATA-DRIVEN: The dedicated department used big data to find sexual harassment hot spots on the Mass Rapid Transit system to take measures against perpetrators Most incidents of sexual harassment and secret photography in Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system over the past five years occurred at three stations, the Rapid Transit Division of the Taipei City Police Department said in a statement yesterday. Most incidents were recorded at Zhongxiao-Fuxing MRT Station, followed by Taipei Main and Zhongxiao-Dunhua MRT stations, the department said, adding that the results were obtained through big data analysis. The system, which serves Taipei and New Taipei City, handles about 2.2 million passengers per day, and most cases of secret photography and sexual harassment — usually involving touching a victims buttocks or chest
RSS