ENVIRONMENT
City to charge for utensils
The Taipei City Government is to begin charging take-out customers for disposable utensils and containers at 66 city-operated facilities, starting with Taipei Municipal Wanfang Hospital yesterday, the Department of Environmental Protection said yesterday. Lin Yutang House, Grass Mountain Chateau and food stalls operating in the No. 3 Area of the Taipei Arena MRT Station are to follow suit by the end of the year, while other outlets will adopt the rule by July 5 next year, the department said. The charges are NT$2 for a meal container and NT$1 each for a bowl, a pair of chopsticks or a spoon, it said. The measure is expected to reduce the number of single-use disposable utensils annually by up to 5 million, it added.
SOCIETY
MRT flower shops open
With flower exports declining 20 to 30 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government is working with Taipei Metro to operate a series of flower shops inside MRT stations to sell locally produced blooms. The second of the stores had its official opening on Wednesday at the Songjiang Nanjing Station following a two-month trial run during which it averaged sales of NT$4,000 to NT$5,000 per day, and hit a daily high of NT$12,000, said Evelyn Lu (呂瀅瀅), chairwoman of Taipei Flower Auction, which buys the flowers from local growers and sells them through the stores. Ghost Month, which started this year on Wednesday, generally gives a boost to flower sales, as many people purchase them to appease the spirits, Lu said. Sales are also expected to surge in the runup to Qixi Festival, which falls on Tuesday next week. The metro flower shops sell everything from orchids to roses, balloon flowers and lilies. The first store opened at Zhongshan MRT Station on July 25.
DIPLOMACY
AIT names Kaohsiung head
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Wednesday named Mason Yu (禹道瑞) as the head of its Kaohsiung branch, saying he had taken office following the departure of his predecessor. Yu, a former deputy chief at the branch office, replaced Matthew O’Connor, who recently completed his three-year tenure and has left Taiwan. Yu joined the US Department of State in 2001 and most recently served as special assistant to the assistant secretary of the Bureau of Administration, an AIT news release said. He has also served in several posts overseas, including in Singapore, Saudi Arabia and China, the AIT said. A native of Seattle, Washington, Yu graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Mass Communications and earned a Master of Military Studies from the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College, it said.
CULTURE
Movie funding pulls NT$24m
A crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to produce a movie series based on Taiwan’s history has raised more than NT$24 million (US$813,229) from more than 6,000 people, according to the campaign’s Web site. The first phase of the campaign, which runs until Oct. 10, is aimed at raising NT$100 million. Taiwanese filmmaker Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖), who directed the popular two-part epic film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (彩虹戰士:賽德克巴萊), based on the 1930 Wushe Incident in central Taiwan, aims to release a trilogy — Siraya, Teyouan and Formosa in 2024, 2025 and 2026 respectively. More information on the film series can be found at the Taiwan Trilogy Film Fundraising Project-Phase 1 Web site.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
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