Instead of abandoning a graduation ceremony, with only two sixth-grade students having completed their education this year, Shu Mei Elementary School in Kinmen County instead planned a unique event for the students.
The two elementary-school students graduating this year, Yang Hao-lung (楊昊龍) and Chang Wei-shih (張煒世), started out from the school at 8:30am yesterday and jogged to Jinsha Township (金沙) Office before riding a tandem bicycle to the entrance of the ancient trail into Taiwu Mountain (太武山), bordered by the Tsai (蔡) family’s ancestral house.
The two then climbed to the peak of Taiwu Mountain where they were presented with their graduation certificates by school principal Liu Chieh-hung (劉界宏).
Standing atop the mountain, overlooking the school and with China visible in the distance, Liu told the students that he hoped they would always hold Kinmen in high regard and asked them to give something back to the county in the future, if possible.
Liu said that no matter where the students end up in the world, he would always be thinking of them.
The entire journey was broadcast live for all teachers and parents attending the graduation ceremony at Taiwu Mountain’s Hai Yin Temple.
Both students said the process was enjoyable and sang traditional graduation songs. They also presented their homeroom teacher Yang Yu-lin (楊育霖) with flowers and confectionery to thank him for his hard work during the school year.
Yang said the students started training for the event when they were informed about the special ceremony six months ago, adding that they had walked the mountain trail twice.
Both students performed well at school and had a close bond with each other, Yang said, adding that she was sad to see them leave.
Eleven students from the elementary school’s affiliated kindergarten also climbed parts of the mountain to Hai Yin Temple to receive their certificates.
Kinmen County Bureau of Education Director Lee Wen-liang (李文良) said that it was the most innovative graduation ceremony he has seen and that the memories would stay with the students for a long time.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
RSS