WEATHER
Snow falls on Yushan
The nation’s highest peak, Yushan (玉山), yesterday received its first snowfall this winter, with the arrival of northeasterly winds which brought abundant moisture, the Central Weather Bureau said. The temperature on Yushan dropped to about 0°C yesterday morning, before rain and snow began to fall at 11:25am, followed by sleet and more snow at noon, the bureau said.
TRANSPORT
New Year schedule unveiled
The Taipei MRT system is to run continuously for 42 hours from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 to provide a travel option for people celebrating the New Year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Thursday. The MRT is to start operating at 6am on New Year’s Eve and continue until midnight on New Year’s Day, with the exception of Xiaobitan and Xinbeitou MRT stations, the company said. In addition, from 5pm on Dec. 31, all trains running on the Red Line from Tamsui and Beitou are to continue to Xiangshan MRT Station, as it is a popular spot for viewing the Taipei 101 New Year fireworks. Bicycles are to be allowed on the MRT from 10am to 4pm on Dec. 31, while YouBike bicycle rental services are to be suspended in control areas near Taipei City Hall after 5pm, the company said. Services on the Maokong Gondola are also to be extended for New Year’s Eve, with the last carriage departing at 2am on Jan. 1.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Pan video goes viral
A video of Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) eating a banana taken from a bunch of bananas taped to a wall with duct tape has gone viral on social media. The Democratic Progressive Party politician was copying a similar stunt that swept international media last week, when David Datuna ate a banana displayed at Miami’s Art Basel that had just been sold by Perrotin, an international art gallery, for US$120,000. In the video the commissioner said that his bunch of bananas grown in Pingtung was bigger and more impressive than the Miami version, and that it was also a valuable piece of art. Pan took a banana from the bunch and ate it, saying: “Not only can they be admired [as a work of art], they are also delicious.” The video posted on Thursday had garnered more than 500 comments and been shared by more than 600 users on Facebook.
EMPLOYMENT
China’s allure waning
China remained the No. 1 destination for Taiwanese heading overseas to work last year, although the number dropped to its lowest level since 2008, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. Last year, 404,000 Taiwanese were working in China (including Hong Kong and Macau), accounting for 54.9 percent of all Taiwanese working overseas, government data showed. The number is the lowest since 2008 and marks the fifth consecutive annual fall, the agency said. The previous year, 405,000 Taiwanese were working in China. The agency attributed the continued decline to the US-China trade dispute, which compelled many Taiwanese firms based in China to return to avoid punitive US tariffs. The cost of running a business in China has significantly increased over the past several years due to gradual salary increases and stricter environmental protection laws, the agency said. Overall, 737,000 Taiwanese were working overseas last year, an increase of 1,000 from the previous year, it said. The second-largest destination was Southeast Asian nations (112,000, or 15.2 percent), followed by the US (95,000, or 12.9 percent), it added.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
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