Heavy rain over Taipei and New Taipei City yesterday afternoon flooded multiple areas in Daan (大安) and Xinyi (信義) districts, prompting the Taipei City Government to upgrade the alert status to level two.
Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) shared multiple pictures of flooding in Xinyi and urged the public to be careful.
People in Nangang District (南港) complained of flooding, saying that the water level in some areas was about half the height of a scooter and the amount of rain was reminiscent of a typhoon, KMT Taipei City Councilor Lee Ming-hsien (李明賢) said.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Heavy rains test the city’s drainage system, Lee said, calling on the city’s flood-related units to be on standby.
The Taipei City Government said that all four of its weather stations reported rainfall exceeding 100mm, and the Central Weather Administration had issued a heavy rain alert for Taipei and New Taipei City.
Although the convection cell was slowly moving out of Taipei in a northeasterly direction in the afternoon, Shilin (士林), Beitou (北投) and Neihu (內湖) districts still experienced sporadic rainfall, the Taipei City Government said.
Wenshan (文山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts also experienced heavy rainfall, while New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) issued a level one flood alert in the afternoon.
Flood alerts indicate when water levels reach the flooding point or the top of the dikes. Level two alerts mean it would take five hours before the flooding point is reached, while level one alerts indicate that it would take two hours.
Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) paused all ground staff activities at about 1:35pm and lifted the alert by 2:30pm.
Songshan Airport said that the pause in ground staff duties affected 15 flights and led to delays at airports serving it.
The Civil Aviation Administration urged travelers and those collecting people from airports to pay close attention for any changes in flight information.
The sudden heavy rain had “drowned” parts of Xinyi, and afterward, it became a “surfing area,” Taipei residents said.
Yesterday afternoon, people at Xinyi shopping district said the rain had inundated the district’s sky bridges and turned the pedestrian paths into “rivers.”
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during