WEATHER
Banciao hits fall record high
New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) yesterday experienced the hottest day since the beginning of autumn, the Central Weather Bureau said. Even though Saturday is Qiufen, the autumnal equinox in East Asian calendars, temperatures throughout the nation remained high. The temperature reached 37°C at 2:17pm in Banciao, making it the hottest recorded temperature this month nationwide and the second-hottest recorded temperature for September in Banciao since the installation of temperature sensors in the district in 1972. In Taipei, a high of 36.9°C was recorded at 12:23pm, making it the fourth-hottest September temperature since records began. The heat is primarily due to southeasterly winds that are circulating around the nation, which are to remain until Thursday, when a weak front and seasonal northeasterly wind is to move in, bureau forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said.
TOURISM
Peach launches flights
Japan-based budget airline Peach Aviation yesterday said it is to launch its inaugural Taoyuan-Sapporo flight service today and Taoyuan-Sendai flights tomorrow, amid efforts to increase its market presence in Taiwan. Round-trip flights to Sapporo are to occur every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while those to Sendai will be available on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the airline said. The schedule will apply to flights from today to Oct. 28, which is peak season for travel to Japan, the airline said. Starting next summer, the carrier is to also offer daily flights between Kaohsiung and Okinawa, CEO Shinichi Inoue said earlier this month. “Taiwan is central to Peach’s goal of becoming a ‘bridge in the sky’ in Asia,” Inoue said, adding that the company plans to double the size of its fleet of 19 by 2020.
SOCIETY
Kansas inks license MOU
Taiwan and the US state of Kansas on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on driver’s license reciprocity that allows license-holders from either side to obtain a local license without having to take local tests, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Denver said. The MOU, which went into effect immediately, makes Kansas the 24th state with which Taiwan has signed a driver’s license reciprocity agreement, the office said in a statement. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it would continue to work with other US states to provide the same convenience to their residents.
LOTTERY
Receipt prizes unclaimed
Four NT$10 million (US$331,225) uniform invoice lottery prizes remain unclaimed, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday, urging invoice holders to claim their prizes. The four outstanding sales invoices issued in the May to June period have the number 99768846. The receipts were issued at the Hankyu Uni-President Mall in Taipei for a NT$690 purchase; at a National Petroleum Co gas station on Roosevelt Road in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) for NT$1,000; at a FamilyMart on New Taipei City’s Jingping Road for a NT$148 purchase of cold noodles and tea eggs; and at a Wellcome supermarket in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe (中和) for a NT$15 coffee. The ministry said there are also four outstanding receipts for the NT$2 million prize. The outstanding receipts bear the number 83660478. People who have winning receipts have until Nov. 6 to claim their prizes.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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