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.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Police today said they are stepping up patrols throughout the Taipei MRT system, after a social media user threatened to detonate a bomb at an unspecified station this afternoon. Although they strongly believe the threat to be unsubstantiated, Taipei Metro police and the Railway Police Bureau still said that security and patrols would be heightened through the system. Many copycat messages have been posted since Friday’s stabbing attacks at Taipei Main Station and near Zhongshan MRT Station that left three dead and 11 injured, police said. Last night, a Threads user in a post said they would detonate a bomb on the Taipei
RSS