President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election next month, yesterday launched another home-stay trip at a local fruit grower’s house in the Dongshih District (東勢) of Greater Taichung, seeking to consolidate his support in the crucial city ahead of the presidential election.
Ma spent a night at the house of local farmer Chan Te-sen (詹德森), a board member of the Taichung Agriculture Association, and met with a group of local farmers to discuss agricultural issues, including the price of locally grown fruits and the export of agricultural products to China under the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
“Taichung was my first stop when I launched my long-stay trips during the 2008 presidential election campaign when I stayed at a teacher’s house in the city,” Ma said when discussing the home-stay experience before visiting Chan.
“I’ve become friends with most of the families I have stayed with during the long-stay trips and [home stay] is a great way to better understand local issues,” Ma said.
The president also had rice dumpling with the farmers to celebrate the upcoming winter solstice, also known as the Dongzhi Festival (冬至).
The home-stay last night was Ma’s second stay in Taichung’s Fongyuan District (豐原).
He had stayed at the home of a local farmer in the district last month, followed by another overnight trip to a National University of Kaohsiung dormitory last month.
Taichung is deemed as a key city for Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the presidential and legislative elections after the party almost lost the city to the Democratic Progressive Party in last year’s special municipality elections.
KMT Culture and Communication Committee director Chuang Po-chun (莊伯仲) said Ma’s stay in Taichung would help boost the president’s momentum in central Taiwan and consolidate support for the party’s legislative candidates.
Ma is scheduled to visit Chan’s grape orchard this morning and canvass at a local market to attempt to solicit voters’ support. He is scheduled for more home-stay trips next week, Ma’s re-election campaign office said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include