Police officers in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) said they are having difficulty coping with the massive crowds congregating on streets and in public parks to play the augmented-reality game Pokemon Go, and plan to ask the gaming company to reduce the number of “PokeStops” around Beitou Park (北投公園) to get a handle on the problem.
Beitou Police Precinct Deputy Chief Wang Cheng-ting (王正廷) said the office has set up several mobile patrol units composed of police officers, police volunteers and firefighters to provide rapid response in managing crowds and easing traffic congestion.
“Due to the flood of people gathering to play Pokemon Go around Beitou Park, we have gridlock in the area, with the narrow streets and roads being crowded with people,” Wang said, adding that police have been busy issuing tickets to illegally parked cars and motorcycles.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“To alleviate these problems, we will formally request the Pokemon Go gaming company in Taiwan to cut the number of PokeStops around Beitou Park. We believe this is the best way to reduce the crowd coming here to catch Pokemon creatures,” he added.
Wang said police have also downloaded the “Go Radar” app — which presents updated information on the appearance and location of in-game creatures, which often leads to the phenomenon of a huge crowd rushing in the same direction — to pinpoint possible trouble spots.
Beitou Park is well-known as popular destination for local and foreign tourists with its natural hotsprings, Japanese-era bathhouses, historical sites and other cultural attractions.
Local media reports say Beitou Park has become the top place in northern Taiwan for gamers to catch rare Pokemon creatures, such as Dragonite, Vaporeon and Snorlax, and has become a hotspot for people to gather from daytime to nighttime, with huge crowds overwhelming the place in the past two weekends.
A video of the unusual phenomenon taking place in Beitou has made international headlines, with the Time.com news Web site posting a report titled, “Pokemon Go may have just shown us what the end of the world looks like.”
The report said the thousands of people swarming a Taiwanese intersection was reminiscent of a scene from a science-fiction movie of hordes of zombies looking for their victims.
The video showed gamers, mobile phones in hand, surging together on congested streets in front of Beitou Park, at the intersection of Guangming Road and Zhongshan Road, rushing past cars and buses, stopping traffic, and moving toward the direction of Xinbeitou MRT Station.
“A surreal video that purports to show thousands of Pokemon Go players in Taiwan stampeding after a Snorlax — a relatively rare creature in the Pokemon pantheon — could, if confirmed, be indicative of just how all-consuming the smartphone game has become,” the report said.
Local residents have complained that since the Pokemon Go madness caught on about one-and-a-half weeks ago, it has led to numerous headaches and problems, with some unable to sleep due to the loud racket gamers made late at night, while others pointed to the mountains of trash piling up inside the park.
Environmental and cultural preservation groups said they fear the congregation of massive crowds would damage the grass lawns and degrade public facilities and historic sites in the area, which would scare off foreign tourists, and affect the area’s hot springs and hospitality businesses.
The Beitou Branch of Taipei Public Library has put up signs inside and outside the facility to remind the public that the library is for reading books, and not for catching imaginary creatures, in an effort to discourage gamers from entering the library to play the mobile phone app.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
Typhoon Krathon, a military airshow and rehearsals for Double Ten National Day celebrations might disrupt flights at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in the first 10 days of next month, the airport’s operator said yesterday. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a statement that it has established a response center after the Central Weather Administration issued a sea warning for Krathon, and urged passengers to remain alert to the possibility of disruptions caused by the storm in the coming days. Flight schedules might also change while the air force conducts rehearsals and holds a final airshow for Double Ten National Day, it added. Although
SEMICONDUCTORS: TSMC is able to produce 2-nanometer chips and mass production is expected to be launched by next year, the company said In leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing China is behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) by at least 10 years as the Taiwanese chipmaker’s manufacturing process has progressed to 2 nanometers, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said yesterday. Wu made the remarks during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee when asked by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) about a report published in August by the Chinese version of Nikkei Asia that said Taiwan’s lead over China in chip manufacturing was only three years. She asked Wu Cheng-wen if the report was an accurate
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
RSS