The Taiwan International Balloon Festival ended on Monday evening, having attracted 1.23 million visitors since its opening on July 2, the Taitung County Tourism Department said yesterday.
The festival was held in the county’s Luye Highland.
It featured 20 hot-air balloons from abroad that appeared in Taiwan for the first time, including two shaped like the Japanese mascots Yakultman and Kumanon, and one from the US in the shape of Elvis Presley, the event organizer said.
Photo: Chen Hsien-yi, Taipei Times
The festival also featured nearly a dozen balloons from Taiwan, such as the Tourism Bureau’s mascot OhBear and the Taipei City Government’s mascot, Bravo Bear.
Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) said the annual festival, which was held for the 12th year, featured drone light shows for the first time.
In related news, an international skydiving event began yesterday at the Luye Highland and would run until Wednesday next week, the Taitung County Government said.
The event is to feature jumps by 10 professional skydivers from Taiwan, Russia and Ukraine, it said.
Three jumps would be conducted each day — in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon — the county said.
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
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