Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday challenged Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) Tamsui River (淡水河) clean-up record, alleging he has taken credit for the work of others.
Leading the press to inspect the river yesterday morning, DPP Taipei City councilors Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏), Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒) and independent Councilor Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) played Hau’s latest campaign video and criticized him for misleading the public into believing that he was the one who cleaned up the Tamsui River.
In the video, Hau, who is seeking re-election, pledged to build Taipei into a beautiful city, surpassing Seoul and Tokyo. Hau also pledged to make the Tamsui River basin into a second Manhattan.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Calling Hau’s ability to deliver into question, Chien pointed at the filthy and smelly river behind her that runs through the capital city and Taipei County.
She also said Hau’s video had footage of the Fisherman’s Wharf and Tamsui MRT station, both of which are located in Taipei County. She dared him to replace the footage with clips from the river near the city’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area and Zhongxiao Bridge (忠孝橋), which she said was highly contaminated.
Chien said the Tamsui River has been polluted and smelly for the past four years. Now as Hau is up for re-election, he has brought up the subject once again and declared that he has done a good job cleaning up the river, but used other sections of the river in his promotion video.
“I have no idea whether he is the mayor of Taipei City or commissioner of Taipei County,” she said.
She said Fisherman’s Wharf was the accomplishment of Hau’s election opponent, former Taipei County commissioner Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of the DPP. She added the Tamsui MRT station was planned and built when former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was Taipei mayor.
Lee said the water quality near the Zhongxiao Bridge and Chongyang Bridge (重陽橋) has always been the worst.
Chen said the city spent NT$21.6 billion (US$676,861 million) over the past four years dredging the Tamsui River, but the result was not impressive. The sections near Dadaocheng and Dachia (大佳) were so contaminated and silted that the Blue Highway ferry system (藍色公路) was but an empty shell, he said.
The ferry system was built after the railroad connecting Tamshui to Taipei Main Station was dismantled to make way for the MRT’s Tanshui Line. The system did not succeed and in 2000, the route was revitalized as a tourist attraction.
The main trunk of the river cruise runs from its northernmost point at Fisherman’s Wharf in Danshui to its southernmost point at Dadaocheng Wharf.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS