The nation’s last legal brothel has closed after its owner, a woman surnamed Chang Liu (張柳), passed away.
The brothel in Kangle Alley in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東) had operated legally under a county bylaw.
After Chang Liu’s passing, police immediately filed for the cancelation of the brothel’s permit and requested that the county government revoke the bylaw.
Photo: Chang Yi-chen, Taipei Times
The permit was canceled on Jan. 1, but the bylaw remained in effect pending a county councilors’ meeting, which was held on Wednesday, Yilan County Police Commissioner Hsieh Chin-hsien (謝進賢) said.
After the meeting, councilors in a statement said that the rule has been abolished in accordance with Article 23 of the bylaw, which stipulates that it should be revoked once the last remaining brothel closes.
Kangle Alley was historically viewed as a “men’s paradise,” a resident said, adding that the 1970s were the golden age for the local sex industry, with brothels opening at 6am and by evening welcoming an endless stream of clients.
As brothels cannot be sold or relocated, permits were canceled after owners passed away, they said.
After the government stopped issuing permits, the number of brothels declined until only four remained in 2010, each employing four or five sex workers with an average age of about 50, the resident said.
“A brothel would need to serve at least 10 clients per day just to pay the bills,” they added.
Brothels in the alley would charge a set rate of NT$600 per transaction, but clients would sometimes haggle the price down to NT$500 and the brothels would be pressed to comply, they said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS