Children and adults visiting the Keelung Maritime Plaza have been using public art installations as playground slides, local residents said.
The plaza, which is a major attraction for visitors and local residents, was reopened on June 23 following extensive repairs to its wooden boardwalk.
Large steel pieces, sculpted to form the letters of the word “Keelung” and adorned with LED lights, were installed on the plaza to attract visitors, but local residents said on social media that toddlers had been seen using the sculptures as slides.
Photo: Lu Hsien-hsiu, Taipei Times
Multiple complaints were made by Keelung residents on the city government’s Facebook page, saying such behavior damages the city’s image, exposes children to accidents and puts the art pieces at risk of damage, adding that adults also sometimes climb the installations to get a better view of the sea.
A reporter witnessed children sliding down the installations while their parents stood nearby without taking any action to stop them.
In response to inquiries, Keelung Department of Transportation and Tourism Director-General Lee Kang (李綱) said that the city government would respond by putting up signs requesting children and adults to stay away from the installations, adding that contractors would be commissioned to add protrusions to the installations, like the ones on the escalators at Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit stations, to discourage sliding and other dangerous behavior.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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 Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu