Apart from pineapple cakes, facial masks and tea, Taiwan has more to offer to Chinese tourists visiting the nation, an article by the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily said on Monday.
The author, Zhao Yi (趙毅), said that what made the biggest impression on him during his tour of Taiwan was the “good citizenship” of Taiwanese.
The article, titled “Why I am Touched by Travel Around Taiwan — Chinese Should Learn a Lesson of Citizenship in Taiwan,” was carried by the official daily newspaper of the Shanghai Committee of the Communist Party of China.
It came as Taiwan today marks the 10th anniversary of welcoming Chinese tourists to the nation.
The semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits signed a tourism agreement on June 13, 2008.
The first group of Chinese tourists arrived in Taiwan on July 4 that year.
Zhao praised the manners of Taiwanese, saying that it is an intangible value that Chinese should learn when they visit Taiwan, instead of simply purchasing local specialties.
Every city he visited and every street he walked during his 10-day trip was clean, Zhao said.
There were no cigarette butts or sputum on the ground, he said, adding that he rarely heard vehicle horns or people talking loudly on the street.
Unlike in China, where people often ignore other pedestrians, Taiwanese respect each other, Zhao said.
On Taipei’s streets, people say “sorry” if they bump into someone, he added.
In convenience stores, clerks receive money and give change to customers with both hands, he said, adding that they politely say “thank you” when exchanging money with customers, who respond in the same manner.
Customers can use restrooms in convenience stores where they can also chat, read newspapers, drink coffee, eat or negotiate deals, he said.
Zhao wrote that a Taiwanese friend of his asked him to put out his cigarette at a public plaza after a meal, showing him a sign that read “smoking prohibited in public squares.”
He also made an observation about romantic relationships in Taiwanese society.
Chinese women usually ask their future husbands for a car, house or other property as a guarantee, Zhao said.
However, he added that his Taiwanese female friends told him that Taiwanese women marry for love, rather than wealth or material benefits.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
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
RSS