Taiwan and Japan plan to launch a joint rail tourism campaign next month as part of expanding links between the two countries since a massive earthquake struck Japan in March last year.
In the campaign, dubbed “sister trains,” Taiwan’s CK124 steam engine and a similar Japanese train called the Hokkaido SL Fuyu-no-Shitsugen will be used to promote railway travel in both countries, authorities said.
The partnership idea came about during a visit to Taiwan by Japanese officials in April last year to promote tourism as part of Japan’s disaster recovery efforts.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Taiwan Railways Administration
After months of discussions and with the help of non-profit organizations, a promotional campaign was devised featuring a plan called “Train Travel: Winter in Hokkaido and summer in Taiwan.”
It is to be formalized on March 12 in a letter of intent signed by the Japan Hokkaido Railway Co (JR Hokkaido) and the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA).
“It is the first time that Taiwan has entered into such a partnership with a foreign rail company,” said Wang Chuan-hsin (王川信), the TRA division chief in charge of the project.
JR Hokkaido said the promotional campaign is expected to help revive the economy in northeast Japan, an area that was hit hard by the powerful earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11 last year.
The partnership is also a means to express Japan’s gratitude for Taiwan’s tremendous humanitarian aid in the wake of the disaster, JR Hokkaido said.
For Taiwan, the project also offers an opportunity to enhance cultural preservation, according to the Society of Railway and National Planning, which has been involved in the partnership.
“We hope Taiwan can take this opportunity to learn from Japan’s ways of preserving invaluable cultural heritage like these locomotives,” said Jen Hen-yi, a spokesman for the society.
Although the full details of the promotional campaign have not been finalized, the TRA said, it plans to invite its Japanese counterpart to take part in Taiwan’s Railway Festival in June.
The CK124, built in 1936, is one of Taiwan’s most popular steam locomotives and is widely used by the TRA for promotional purposes.
In Japan, the C11-171 engine that pulls the SL Fuyu-no--Shitsugen Train was manufactured in 1940 and operated in various parts of Hokkaido.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS