An interim market in Taipei is to officially open on Wednesday, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), said yesterday.
She visited the temporary location for the Nanmen Market (南門市場), and the Taipei Market Administration Office said most facility problems for the future permanent site have been fixed.
The Nanmen Market, best known for its ready-to-eat foods and dry goods, has been housed in a 10-story building at the intersection of Roosevelt and Nanhai roads for the past 38 years.
It was closed down on Oct. 7 to facilitate construction of the Taipei MRT’s Wanda Line and to make improvements to the building’s safety features.
In 2013, ionic chloride was detected in the building that exceeded the standard limit in reinforced concrete, which could cause premature corrosion of steel reinforcements. In 2016, Ko decided that it would be torn down and rebuilt.
A total of 257 vendors from the market were moved to the interim site, located at Hangzhou S Road. The market began trial operations on Oct. 17.
During her visit, Chen said she lives and works near both the original and the interim market sites, so she sometimes visits it after work to buy ready-to-eat dishes.
The delicious food remains the same despite the move, she said.
When asked to elaborate on a Facebook post last week that criticized the pan-green camp, Chen downplayed the issue, stating: “I hope all politicians running in the election can come visit Nanmen Market, and because I live nearby, I can certainly be a good tour guide and introduce them to the delicious gourmet food here.”
Chen said that she hardly discusses politics with Ko at home and that she sometimes shares her personal thoughts on her Facebook page.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS