Yushan National Park on Tuesday said a plan to remove the park’s last surviving payphone has been scrapped after park officials persuaded Chunghwa Telecom to keep the machine.
The telecom had previously said the payphone would be removed from the park’s Tataka Visitor Center, as the NT$22 revenue generated by the phone last year was insufficient to justify its upkeep.
The phone was installed in 1994, long before the adoption of mobile devices, the park said on Facebook.
Photo: CNA
However, the payphone’s value cannot be measured in dollar terms, it said, adding that people who forget to take their cellphones with them or charge their devices, as well as foreign travelers without SIM cards, need the coin-operated machine.
“For visitors without a cellphone feeling like they are lost at sea, the payphone could be a great source of joy, especially during that call to the folks at home,” the park said.
“Through the years, [the payphone] has served the public from the age of landline to 5G networks like an old, faithful friend. We urge the public to continue supporting the phone [by using it] so that it will see many more [years of use] at the Tataka Visitor Center,” it added.
Some of the payphones in the county go unused for two months at a time and phones that do not turn a profit are put on a shortlist for removal, the office said.
Exceptions are made for payphones in remote villages and communities, it said, adding that those machines have an added geolocation function for police, firefighters and rescue workers to find the caller in an emergency.
After discussions with the park, the telecom now considers the Tataka Visitor Center payphone as a unit in a remote community that would be maintained regardless of the cost, it said.
Chunghwa Telecom operates 1,000 payphones nationwide, down about 60 percent from a peak of 2,500 payphones, the office 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