TRAVEL
Wuling Farm lifts controls
Wuling Farm in Taichung lifted its cherry blossom season traffic controls yesterday, making it more accessible for people who want to view the stunning flora at the farm, which is home to more than 20,000 cherry blossom trees. The farm typically imposes traffic controls during peak bloom periods, which this year began on Feb. 13 and ended yesterday, as the trees typically bloom in February. The farm said some species which blossomed on time have already begun to wilt, painting a scene of falling pink. The sight is further accentuated by late bloomers whose flowers have just opened. The farm said it saw an increase in visitors over the extended weekend.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsun, Taipei Times
ENTERTAINMENT
‘Rain Horse’ to join festival
Paper Windmill Theatre’s children’s play Rain Horse (雨馬) would be staged six times at this year’s Lantern Festival in Chiayi County, accompanied by a 10m-tall, 13m-long horse-shaped installation of the same name, organizers said. The installation would also join the Team Taiwan parade on Saturday, the county’s Culture and Tourism Bureau said. Rain Horse, a collaboration between the Hakka Affairs Council and Paper Windmill Theatre, was adapted from a picture book by writer Hsiao Yeh (小野), and was first performed in 2021. Created against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many children were unable to go outside and lost out on the joys of daily life, the production carries themes of comfort, companionship and growing up in difficult times, the bureau said. The festival begins tomorrow and would run until March 15.
WEATHER
Rain to bring in cold
Brief showers are forecast across Taiwan beginning today as a cold front approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The rain is expected to bring cooler temperatures tomorrow and on Wednesday, with daytime highs of 19°C to 20°C in the north, 25°C to 27°C in the south and about 24°C in central Taiwan, the CWA said. Northern areas could see overnight lows of about 16°C, and 16°C to 19°C for central and southern areas, it said. Temperatures are forecast to rebound on Thursday, with rain receding to the north, mountainous areas in central and southern Taiwan, and the Hengchun Peninsula, the CWA said. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said northeasterly winds would strengthen again on Friday, bringing localized brief showers and lower temperatures to the north and the east.
SOCIETY
Worker found dead in tank
A worker at a Taichung company was found dead in a sewage tank yesterday, the Taichung Fire Bureau said. The bureau said it received a report at 10:50am from a company in Wuci District (梧棲) that it had lost contact with a 64-year-old worker, surnamed Chen (陳), during a chemical feeding operation. Rescue personnel dispatched to the scene found Chen dead in the tank after partially draining the wastewater. Police said there were no visible external injuries on his body, and a preliminary forensic examination found no signs of foul play. Taichung’s Department of Labor Inspection said it sent people to conduct an occupational accident investigation and ordered the company to suspend operations pending improvements to workplace safety conditions. If the company is found to have contravened the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), the case could be referred to judicial authorities, it said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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