The 12th Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival opened yesterday to long lines of people, some of whom had been lining up since the night before.
A university student surnamed Chang (張), who had traveled with his friends from Taichung for the fair, told reporters that when they arrived at the venue in Taipei about 9pm on Wednesday, people had already began to line up at some of the entrances.
By the time doors opened at 10am yesterday, the lines had stretched from between 100m to 200m outside the 10 entrances of the Taipei World Trade Center venue.
Photo: CNA
The large number of comic fans then rushed through the doors, hoping to snap up some of the lucky bags being handed out at several booths.
Presale tickets for the comics fair had topped 10,000, and the five-day event was expected to generate more than NT$200 million (US$6.38 million) in revenue, Taipei Department of Economic Development Director Chen Chun-an (陳俊安) said at the opening ceremony.
Chinese Animation and Comic Publishers Association secretary-general Kao Shih-chuang (高世樁) said that an estimated 470,000 people are likely to attend the fair over the five-day period.
Photo: CNA
This year, the number of booths has increased to a record 800, 35 percent more than last year, said Su Wei-chuan (蘇偉銓), head of the Taipei-based association that organizes the annual event.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to