An aquarium in Taichung’s Cingshui District (清水) that started development more than a decade ago under then-Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) still has no animals and has not opened, Taichung City Councilor Yang Tien-chung (楊典忠) said on Sunday.
Under Hu, the aquarium was initially envisioned as a penguin conservation center and later an Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin conservation center, Yang said.
“When Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) became mayor, the city pushed for its development as a jellyfish conservation center, and then as an all-purpose aquarium,” Yang said. “With only a year and four months left in Lu Shiow-yen’s (盧秀燕) first term as mayor, there is still not even a single egg in the place.”
Photo: Tang Tsai-hsin, Taipei Times
Taichung Tourism and Travel Bureau Director Han Yu-chi (韓育淇) said that operations of the site would be taken over by Nan Ren Hu Entertainment Co, which operates the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung County’s Checheng Township (車城).
Although the Taichung aquarium would face competition from Xpark Aquarium in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) — which opened in August last year and has jellyfish and penguin enclosures — the Taichung City Government would work with Nan Ren Hu to ensure that its facility would offer people a unique experience, Han said.
However, Yang was skeptical.
“The thing is not even open yet and it is already rusting — it is painful to see,” he said.
The city on six occasions had failed to secure a bidder to operate the facility, Yang said, adding that he doubted a proposed opening in the fourth quarter next year would be possible.
The initial construction budget was NT$350 million (US$12.56 million), which was increased to NT$570 million when Lin decided that it should be an all-purpose marine conservation center, Yang said.
In 2018, the city invested an additional NT$250 million to build animal enclosures so that it could be an aquarium, he said.
“Following several unsuccessful attempts to find a bidder for the build-operate-transfer project, Nan Ren Hu in July stepped in after adjustments were made to the contract,” he said.
Taichung in April and June spent another NT$42.6 million on the facility, he said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
RSS