A longer, safer Taiwan Cycling Route No. 2 is to be completed by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday after a BBC report released last week praised Route No. 1.
The 1,000km Route No. 1 takes cyclists from the northeastern coast to the Hualien-Taitung area, circling Taitung County before entering urban areas of western Taiwan.
Chen said the improved 1.019km-long Route No. 2 would feature exclusive lanes and account for existing paths and terrain, while repurposing abandoned sections of railway.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications
The route aims to provide cyclists with maximum comfort and safety, as well as ensuring that the paths are continuous and unbroken, he said.
The main difference between the routes is that Route No. 2 features more exclusive bike lanes, about 37 percent of the route, compared with Route No. 1’s 11.2 percent, he added.
Route No. 1 was featured in an article by Andrew Nachemson, published on BBC’s Web site on Friday.
Photo: Screen grab from the BBC’s Web site
Nachemson wrote that while cycling in Taiwan has been popular for more than 50 years and the nation is “one of the world’s greatest cycling destinations,” the activity gained renewed interest following the 2006 film Island Etude (練習曲) about a college student cycling around Taiwan proper and the people he meets along the way, the article said.
“As more Taiwanese cyclists set out on the huandao [環島, ‘around the island’] the Taiwanese government inaugurated the circular route as Taiwan Cycle Route No 1 in 2015 — creating a sort of ‘national’ network of cycle paths and roads,” he wrote.
Nachemson also commented on the hospitality of Taiwanese, writing that when he got a flat tire on the north coast, a Taiwanese cyclist stopped to help him patch it up.
When he arrived in Hualien County’s Rueisuei Township (瑞穗) at dusk, “the owner of a fully booked guesthouse called every other hotel until she found me an inn to stay at.”
“When I arrived, a family staying there insisted on feeding me stir-fried noodles and pork soup,” he added.
Taipei police today said they have launched an investigation into a well-known Pokemon Trading Card Game store in Taipei's Ximending (西門町) area after its sudden closure, with customers suspecting the owner absconded with up to NT$300 million (US$9.24 million). Little Sheep Card Shop (小羊卡牌社) in Wanhua District (萬華) — which specializes in card purchases and pre-orders, card grading services in Japan, submissions to the US and consignment sales — opened a physical storefront in January. Its three official Line groups, hosting up to 5,000 members each, and social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram all disappeared overnight, with the Ximending
Typhoon Dolphin could bring heavy rain to northern Taiwan later this week if it tracks closer to the nation after passing the Ryukyu Islands, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The CWA said forecast models agree the storm is to move toward the Ryukyu Islands through Thursday, but diverge over its path after that. One scenario has Typhoon Dolphin passing north of Taiwan, while another has it curving toward the Korean Peninsula if the Pacific high pressure system currently over the East China Sea and Taiwan weakens. Because of the uncertainty, it is still too
NEW AND IMPROVED: The N700ST is based on Japan’s N700S Shinkansen, and features a lighter design, better energy efficiency and upgraded accessibility facilities The first set of N700ST high-speed rail carriages, scheduled to arrive in Taiwan next month, would begin service on July 1 next year, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday. THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) made the remarks during a ceremony in Hitachi Ltd’s Kasado Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where he and Hitachi Railway Systems Business Unit CEO Giuseppe Marino unveiled the locomotive of the first N700ST train. More than 200 guests attended the unveiling. “The first set of N700ST trains will soon be shipped to Taiwan from the prefecture’s Kasado Port. Hopefully, all the required tests will be completed successfully
Taiwan could issue a sea warning for Typhoon Dolphin as early as Friday afternoon if the storm maintains its current westward track, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was about 2,590km east of Taipei and moving west at 21kph, potentially bringing hazardous conditions to waters surrounding Taiwan by Saturday. Dolphin is expected to reach waters south of the Ryukyu Islands around Saturday, but its track beyond that remains highly uncertain, CWA forecaster Lin Ping-yu (林秉煜) said. The typhoon could either continue moving westward or veer northward, Lin said. A westward track would bring
RSS