Siaoliuciou Island (小琉球), a popular vacation destination off the western coast of Pingtung County in southern Taiwan, would get its first traffic light in August, the county government said today.
The traffic light is to be installed in accordance with a National Bureau of Land Management plan to improve road safety around school campuses, Chen Pin-chen (陳品蓁), an official in the Pingtung County Police Bureau's traffic division, said in a call with reporters.
The light is to be located at the intersection of Fuxing and Xiangpu roads near Cyuande Elementary School, where there is a high volume of traffic due to economic and tourism-related activities, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County Police Bureau Donggang Branch
The police department said it expects to do a final check on the traffic light in July after which the light would start being operational in August.
Opinions about the traffic light's installation were mixed on the island, which is visited by more than 1 million tourists each year despite having only 12,000 permanent residents.
In a Facebook group titled "Siaoliuciou Alliance," some commenters welcomed the addition, saying it would make the area safer for people and animals.
Another user, however, said one traffic light would eventually lead to the installation of more, and would eventually "urbanize" the island and destroy its rustic charm.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS