A project to create the nation’s first stargazing industry area has passed a review by the Executive Yuan in a meeting on regional revitalization.
The “Starry Mountain City” plan focuses on areas between Nantou County’s Cingjing (清境) area and Hehuanshan (合歡山), which the International Dark-Sky Association in 2019 designated Taiwan’s first international dark-sky park.
The plan was jointly launched by government agencies, academia and private entities, including Nantou’s Renai Township (仁愛) Office, National Chi Nan University (NCNU) and the Cingjing Sustainable Development Association.
Photo courtesy of She Xiang Cafe
It focuses on three aspects: the area being recognized as an international stargazing town, promoting tourism based on mountains, forests and stargazing culture, and marketing sites in the strategy’s focus area, Chiang Ta-shu (江大樹), a public policy and administration professor at NCNU, said yesterday.
The strategy involves the establishment of a dynamic stargazing environment focused on tourism in three villages and six indigenous communities near Cingjing and Lushan (廬山), Chiang said.
Mobile stargazing equipment would be set up and measures would be taken to prevent light pollution in the villages and communities, Chiang said.
Stargazers could also visit the established tourists sites on Hehuanshan, he said.
The project takes internationlization and localization into consideration, Chiang said, adding that he hoped it would help alleviate economic development imbalances along provincial highways 14 and 14A.
Cingjing Sustainable Development Association director Lee Tsung-hsiu (李從秀) said the strategy combines tourism and environmental protection, and is seeking to cater to three types of stargazers.
Cingjing would feature a commercial stargazing shopping area at an altitude of 1,700m, she said, adding that nearly 80 percent of those visiting the region stop at Cingjing.
Cueifong (翠峰) would promote astronomical education tours led by indigenous people at an altitude of 2,300m, she said
Yuanfong (鳶峰) would feature a planetarium focused on enabling visitors to experience research and space technology, she said, adding that the Nantou County Government is to invest NT$16.2 million (US$569,300) to build the planetarium at an altitude of 2,800m.
The county’s tourism initiatives would continue to focus on reducing light pollution to create a stargazing-friendly travel brand, she said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS