TOURISM
Officials visit Beijing
A delegation of tourism officials from Greater Kaohsiung is set to meet with their Beijing counterparts in China to promote tourism in southern Taiwan, city government officials said yesterday. The delegation, led by Greater Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau Director-General Chen Sheng-shan (陳盛山) arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday to promote the city and will have discussions with China’s National Tourism Administration in Beijing today on the possibility of increasing the daily number of Chinese tourists allowed to visit the city, the officials said. Bureau officials cited tallies from the National Immigration Agency showing that the number of travelers arriving and departing at Kaohsiung International Airport from January to October last year reached 232,752.
DIPLOMACY
Ma touts passport changes
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that a new policy requiring passport applications be filed in person, which is scheduled to be implemented in July, would help reduce passport forgery and boost the nation’s chances of gaining visa-free entry privileges from the US. The drop in the US visa refusal rate for Taiwanese to 2.2 percent last year is also favorable to Taiwan’s bid, Ma told a visiting delegation from Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Ma said that getting included in the US visa-waiver program was one of the government’s goals. The other two are signing an extradition agreement and purchasing F-16 C/D fighters from the US, he said.
EDUCATION
School return date set
The Ministry of Education yesterday said that elementary and junior high schools would start the spring semester on Feb. 14 following the winter break instead of the originally planned Feb. 11. The decision was made on Tuesday at a meeting between ministry officials, local government officials and representatives of parents, teachers and principals’ associations, Vice Minister of Education Chen Yi-hsing (陳益興) said. The change came after parents in northern Taiwan called for postponing the new semester’s first school day to allow children to have an uninterrupted vacation. Feb. 11 is a Friday, which would mean children would have to attend school for just one day, followed by a weekend. The postponement was first agreed to by the New Taipei City (新北市) Government, with Taipei City and Keelung following suit. These moves prompted the ministry to convene the meeting to seek a national consensus.
EVENTS
Flora expo visitors top 3m
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and Taipei International Flora Expo organizers yesterday gathered at the expo as the number of visitors to the six-month-long event broke the 3 million mark. The 3 millionth visitor showed up at around noon yesterday, which was about three weeks after the 2 millionth visitor was tallied. The biggest prize was a hotel voucher worth NT$50,000. Hau said the city would offer bigger prizes as the number of visitors to the event continued to grow. In response to concerns about the expo’s failure to attract over 7 million visitors as it was estimated, Ting Hsi-yung (丁錫鏞), general producer of the expo, said the average number of daily visitors to the expo dropped from 40,000 to 20,000 because of cold weather, but added that the expo remained confident of reaching the goal as the event is expected to attract big crowds during the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays.
Taiwan yesterday expelled four China Coast Guard vessels that entered Taiwan-controlled restricted waters off Lienchiang County (Matsu) shortly after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army announced the start of its “Joint Sword-2024B” drills around Taiwan. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a statement that it had detected two China Coast Guard ships west of Nangan Island (南竿) and another two north of Dongyin Island (東引) at 8am yesterday. After Chinese ships sailed into restricted waters off Matsu shortly afterward, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch deployed four patrol vessels to shadow and approach the vessels, it said. The incidents pushed up to 44 the number
Renovations on the B3 concourse of Taipei Main Station are to begin on Nov. 1, with travelers advised to use entrances near the Taiwan Railway or high-speed rail platforms or information counter to access the MRT’s Red Line. Construction is to be completed before the end of next year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said last week. To reduce the impact on travelers, the NT$95 million (US$2.95 million) project is to be completed in four stages, it said. In the first stage, the hall leading to the Blue Line near the art exhibition area is to be closed from Nov. 1 to the end
Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping area welcomed the most international visitors, followed by Taipei 101, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), a list of the city’s most popular tourist attractions published by the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism showed. As of August, 69.22 million people had visited Taipei’s main tourism spots, a 76 percent increase from 39.33 million in the same period last year, department data showed. Ximending had 20.21 million visitors, followed by Taipei 101 at 8.09 million, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park at 6.28 million, Yangmingshan at 4.51 million and the Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in
The government has issued a deportation order for a Spanish fugitive, ordering him to leave the country within 10 days, as he is wanted by European authorities for allegedly operating a car rental scam. National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials yesterday said Salvador Alejandro Llinas Onate, 48, had been notified that he must leave Taiwan, as he was wanted for committing serious crimes. The Spaniard has been indicted by Italian prosecutors for allegedly leading a 30 million euros (US$32.74 million) car rental scam and setting up a fraudulent company in Trento, Italy. The deportation order is based on Article 18 of
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