Penghu County’s Taipei Affairs Office on Saturday announced plans to hold a “Penghu Week” after one of the outlying island’s local delicacies, ice cream made from cactus fruit, proved surprisingly popular at FamilyMart over the International Workers’ Day long weekend.
Office director Chen Chi-yu (陳其育) said the office sealed a deal with the convenience store chain in August last year to use local cactus plants as a base for ice cream.
The deal was to be an introductory event to pave the way for Penghu agricultural and fishery products — such as Penghu sponge gourds, snow melons, the common ice plant and herbal tea made from Glossocardia bidens — to be better received on Taiwan proper, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Penghu County Government
Penghu County Commissioner Lai Feng-wei (賴峰偉) said that the county’s Agriculture and Fisheries Bureau and local farmers’ associations helped to gather sufficient cactus fruit to make the ice cream.
The ice cream was launched on May 1, and its success was reflected by people sharing photographs and impressions of the product online, Chen said.
The success of the ice cream has helped promote Penghu County and could, with the COVID-19 outbreak seemingly stabilizing in Taiwan, help prime the nation for Penghu’s tourism season, he added.
The office is in the process of talking with Familymart about holding Penghu Week events and selling unique local products at Familymart stores nationwide.
Commenting on the sale of fishery products, Chen said that the office and the bureau would be working through online platforms and focusing on delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Companies and corporate unions have been visiting Penghu to see the fishery products, which underscores the success of the office’s sales pitch, Chen said.
The county is looking to work with National Chung Hsing University and corporations to establish an agriculture zone in Penghu that would offer young people or those willing to devote themselves to agriculture a place to work, he added.
This would provide jobs for locals, provide a use for otherwise unused land and address the limited production of fishery products in the county, Chen said.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS