Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday morning visited several sports venues in Taoyuan that are to be used in this year’s Summer Universiade and praised their quality, giving them a score of “99 percent.”
Accompanied by Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Ko visited the National Taiwan Sport University (NTSU) Arena’s swimming pool and water polo facilities, the track and field venue at Ming Chuan University’s Taoyuan campus and the taekwondo venue at the Taoyuan Arena.
“We are very grateful for the Taoyuan City Government’s help with the venues. I did not have to worry at all,” Ko said. “However, I am embarrassed to give them a full score of 100 percent, so I will give them 99 percent.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Taoyuan is to host 15 of the Universiade’s venues and the city government has worked closely with the Taipei City Government to get them ready, Cheng said, adding that they would all meet the required standards.
In preparation for the games, the Taipei City Government allocated NT$4.9 million (US$161,184) to the Taoyuan City Government to renovate the city’s sports venues, while the Taoyuan City Government allocated NT$8.6 million.
The NTSU Arena now hosts a high-tech prefabricated pool that cost more than NT$100 million, Cheng said.
The World Taekwondo Federation said the Taoyuan Arena’s taekwondo venue is the best Universiade taekwondo venue of the past 15 years, Cheng said.
“We will find another place [in the city] to relocate the prefabricated pool to and a technical team has already evaluated several venues,” Cheng said. “We hope the utilization rate will be high, but the swimming pool is 2m deep, so we plan to adjust the depth before letting the public use the pool.”
If the Summer Universiade is a success, not only Taipei, but the whole of Taiwan would win praise, he said.
Yesterday marked Ko’s fourth exchange visit with city and county heads.
Such exchanges deepen friendship between Taipei and other cities or counties, Ko said, adding that they provide a good opportunity to learn and improve governance.
Asked what he had learned from Cheng, Ko said that he admires Cheng’s handling of relations between the city council and the city government.
Ko described himself as a political neophyte, and said that he is like a vehicle that has a “learner driver” sticker on its bumper, clumsy at first, but now much more steady.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
The New Taipei City Government today warned about the often-overlooked dangers of playing in water, and recommended safe swimming destinations to cool off from the summer heat. The following locations in the city as safe and fun for those looking to enjoy the water: Chienshuiwan (淺水灣), Baishawan (白沙灣), Jhongjiao Bay (中角灣), Fulong Beach Resort (福隆海水浴場) and Sansia District’s (三峽) Dabao River (大豹溪), New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Department Director-General Yang Tsung-min (楊宗珉) said. Outdoor bodies of water have variables outside of human control, such as changing currents, differing elevations and environmental hazards, all of which can lead to accidents, Yang said. Sudden
RSS