International travelers can now buy two one-way high-speed rail tickets for the price of one if they travel to tourist destinations south of Taichung, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday.
The high-speed rail operator said it has teamed up with the Tourism Administration to offer the deal to encourage more international tourists to visit destinations in central and southern Taiwan.
International tourists with short-term tourist visas are eligible to receive the discount when they purchase one-way high-speed rail tickets on online travel service platforms KKday or Klook, provided that their intended destinations are the Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan or Zuoying stations, it said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp
Tickets are limited and sold on a first-come, first-served basis, it said.
With a high-speed rail one-way pass, foreign tourists can purchase a standard cabin seat at a 15 percent discount, the company said.
International travelers can purchase the pass in advance through domestic and overseas dealers that work with the HSRC, but it must be used within 90 days, it said.
To use the pass, travelers should book a seat on the high-speed rail pass Web site, and then present their reservation code, passport and tourist visa at a ticket counter at any high-speed rail station to collect their ticket, it said.
The high-speed rail operator also provides foreign tourists the option of buying a high-speed rail pass or a combined pass that also includes Taiwan Railway trains, it said, adding that the passes allow them to ride the high-speed rail in any section as many times within specified days.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to