The outlying island county of Kinmen was on Monday presented with an excellence award for its “i-center” visitor information centers, the county government said.
Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰) presented a total of 13 excellence awards to “i-center” visitor information centers throughout Taiwan.
The centers were categorized into three tiers: Centers at international airports were grouped in the first tier, centers at other transportation hubs were designated second tier and those in national scenic areas made up the third tier.
Winners in the first tier included Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport information centers, while in the second tier, special municipalities including the Taoyuan City Government, Kaohsiung City Government, New Taipei City Government and Taipei City Government all won prizes.
Regular municipalities in the second tier included Kinmen County government and Miaoli County government.
In the third tier, the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration, Siraya National Scenic Area Administration, East Rift Valley National Scenic Area Administration and the Southwest Coast National Scenic Area Administration won prizes.
The award is part of a yearly assessment plan that was set up in 2004 to improve the quality of tourist visitor centers.
The assessments include sending an unannounced undercover inspector or “mystery shopper” posing as a tourist, who visits the travel centers to evaluate the services provided.
The Kinmen County Tourism Department said the centers at Kinmen Airport and Kinmen’s Shuitou Pier have staff who can give travel advice in foreign languages., as well as free Wi-Fi, a mobile phone charging service, postcard mailing services and first-aid kits.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS