The Caota Sand Dunes (草漯沙丘) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) is a site that “everyone must visit once in their lifetime,” Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) has said.
Cheng’s administration this year spent NT$37 million (US$1.25 million) on a footpath along the coast for visitors to the dunes, which have been listed as the city’s first geological park, and the third in the nation.
The Caota dunes are up to 15m tall and extend 8.1km along the coast in a northeast-southwest direction.
Photo: Cheng Shu-ting, Taipei Times
Environmental conservation group the Taiwan Environmental Information Association has listed the dunes as one of nine coastal sites nationwide that warrant preservation.
After a blogger read about the association’s listing of the dunes and wrote about it earlier this year, visitors flocked to the site to take photographs.
The first section of the footpath opened on June 16 near Chaoyin N Road, the city said, adding that it hopes to complete work on the second section — near Jhongsiao Road — by the end of the year.
Speaking at the opening ceremony for the footpath on Tuesday, Cheng said Taoyuan had applied for recognition of the site as a geological park in 2018, and that the application was approved this month.
The only other geological parks in the nation are in Matsu and Yunlin County’s Gukeng Township (古坑).
Recognition as a geological park would help conserve a 284 hectare section of Taoyuan’s coastline between Guanyin and Dayuan (大園) districts, Cheng said.
The area would be split into three sections from a conservation management perspective, comprising a core area with fully formed dunes, a restoration section and a regular section, he said.
The core section would be accessible only for research and environmental education, to preserve its form, while the regular section would be open to the public and be accessible for recreation purposes, he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS