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Taiwanese dies from eating toads, five injured

The man from eastern Taiwan's Hualien County mistook poisonous central Formosan toads for frogs

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/17
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
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Central Formosan toads (Wikimedia Commons photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A man living in eastern Taiwan's Hualien County died from poisoning after eating central Formosan toads that he and his friends mistook for frogs.

Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center notified local health authorities earlier this month they suspected the man died from poisoning. On Tuesday (Dec. 17), the Hualien Bureau of Health confirmed the group of six living in Fengbin Township had eaten the poisonous toads.

Bureau Director-General Chu Chia-hsiang (朱家祥) said health experts found a chemical in the leftovers of the meal. The chemical, bufotenin, is commonly found in central Formosan toads (Bufo bankorensis).    [FULL  STORY]

YouBike to update service website for foreign residents: official

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/17
By: Chen Yi-hsuan and Ko Lin

CNA File Photo\

Taipei, Dec. 17 (CNA) Foreign residents in Taiwan will be able to register their personal information on the YouBike website once a field for the Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) number becomes available next week, Taipei City Department of Transportation said Tuesday.

Liao Yun-ling (廖苑伶), who heads the department's Transportation Management Division, said expatriates registering with the YouBike service for the first time will be able to do so beginning Dec. 24.

The response came in the wake of a revision to the YouBike rental policy in which all users are now required to first fill in their personal information as well as National ID Number on the YouBike website for all future rentals.

However, this new policy, which took effect on Dec. 1, caused uproar among foreign nationals living in Taiwan, because the original rental website did not include a field for the ARC number, effectively excluding foreign national residents.    [FULL  STORY]

NSPO trumpets satellite’s performance

ON A ROLL:With  Formosat-5 up and running, the NSPO plans to launch 10 satellites by the end of 2028, and update its integration and testing facilities for satellite instruments

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 18, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The images taken by Taiwan’s first indigenously developed satellite, Formosat-5, has been used to

The Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands) are pictured in an undated photograph taken by the Formosat-5 satellite.
Photo courtesy of the National Space organization

calculate underwater topography and monitor rice production after it became commercially operational last year, and its performance is comparable to that of a US high-resolution satellite, the National Space Organization (NSPO) said yesterday.

The NSPO, a National Applied Research Laboratories affiliate, yesterday at a news conference in Taipei touted the academic applications of images taken by Formosat-5.

The optical remote sensing satellite was launched on Aug. 25, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a Falcon 9 rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp, commonly known as SpaceX.

It became commercially operational in September last year, and has been transmitting black-and-white images with a resolution of 2m and color images with a resolution of 4m.
[FULL  STORY]

Only democracy allows freedom to produce creative works: Tsai

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 16 December, 2019
By: Paula Chao

President Tsai Ing-wen says that only by safeguarding democracy and national security can Taiwan

President Tsai Ing-wen (CNA photo)

enjoy the freedom to produce creative works.

Tsai’s comments came Monday, one day after a popular Taiwanese YouTuber, Potter King, refused to bow to pressure from China. In a Facebook post, the YouTuber said his Chinese partner demanded that he remove the word “president” from a video of him interacting with President Tsai.

Potter King said he refused to kowtow to China even if the company that owns his YouTube channel could stand to lose a lot of money. Potter King has over a million fans on Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging site. But he said he is no longer able to access to his Weibo account.

President Tsai said Monday that the censorship of creative works is unacceptable to Taiwan.

“We are a free and democratic society. Everyone has the freedom to produce creative works.
[FULL  STORY]

New YouBike Registration Policy Creates Hurdles for Foreigners in Taipei

The News Lens
Date: 2019/12/16
By: Daphne K. Lee

Photo Credit: Shutterstock 

A new regulation prompting YouBike to require personal information for membership registration excludes foreign residents from being insured at the moment.

YouBike, Taipei’s citywide bicycle rental system, adopted a new membership policy on December 1, effectively preventing all foreigners from registering for the service.

The new policy requires users to register with a Taiwanese mobile number, an EasyCard, and a local Taiwanese ID card, and a birthday. Foreign IDs, including Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) and Alien Permanent Resident Card (APRC), are not permitted according to YouBike. Before the new policy, YouBike registration simply required an EasyCard and a local phone number.

“Considering how widely used YouBike is, this is a fairly discriminatory policy,” said James Bell, 34, a Taipei resident from New Zealand. “Many of us have given years of service to Taiwan and pay taxes like everyone else, but we’re made to jump through hoops to use a normal public service.”

Taipei’s Department of Transportation (DOT) said the new requirement is an effort to enforce personal injury and third-party liability insurance. Once YouBike riders enter their personal information, they are automatically insured against accidental injuries. However, the insurance scheme is strictly for citizens only.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan police brace for rival marches in Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung Taiwan police to place officers in every MRT carriage to prevent clashes between participants

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/12/16
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Kaohsiung police officers to be stationed in MRT carriages on Dec. 21. (Facebook photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — To minimize conflicts between supporters and opponents of Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) during rival marches in Kaohsiung on Saturday (Dec. 21), the southern Taiwan city's police force is planning to station approximately 3,200 officers around the city, including two in every MRT carriage.

After the organization Wecare Kaohsiung (Wecare高雄) announced that it had organized the Dec. 21 march to demand Han's removal as mayor, Han and his team said that they would hold their own march on the same day and claimed that it would see twice as many attendees as the "1221 Wecare Taiwan Parade."    [FULL  STORY]

5-magnitude quake rocks Yilan County

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/12/16
By: Flor Wang

Image taken from the CWB

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) A 5-magnitude earthquake jolted Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan at 7:25 p.m. Monday, according to the Central Weather Bureau.

The epicenter of the temblor was 49.3 kilometers under the sea and about 21.2 kilometers south of the Yilan County government, the bureau said.

The intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Yilan County, measuring 4 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale.

The quake was also felt in Taipei in northern Taiwan at an intensity of three.    [FULL  STORY]

Tsai aims for NT$1tn tourism industry

GROWTH ENGINE: Despite falling Chinese visitor numbers, the nation is on track to attract over 10 million foreign travelers for the fifth straight year, the president said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 17, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

Promising to turn Taiwan into one of Asia’s prime travel destinations in the next 10 years, President

President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at the opening of the “Tourism 2030: National Tourism Policy Development Conference” in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times

Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that tourism would become a growth driver for the nation’s economy, generating more than NT$1 trillion (US$33 billion) in output.

“We introduced the ‘Big Southern Project’ on Sunday, which is to be enforced to balance development in northern and southern Taiwan. Our goal is that the tourism industry becomes a locomotive that drives the economy forward,” she said at the opening of the “Tourism 2030: National Tourism Policy Development Conference.”

As of last week, Taiwan had received 11.11 million international visitors this year, which would be the fifth year that the number of foreign travelers has exceeded 10 million, Tsai said.

The latest Global Muslim Travel Index ranked Taiwan No. 3 among its non-Muslim country travel destinations, she added.    [FULL  STORY]

Hẻm Gems: Home-Cooked Taiwanese Comfort Food for a Cold Saigon Day

Saigoneer
Date: 14 December 2019. 
By: Brendan Ryan

Photos by Alberto Prieto.

District 5, Saigon’s Chinatown, is full of delicious eateries serving Cantonese food. For something new, try Va Thanh, an unassuming restaurant with top-notch Taiwanese home-style cooking.

After high school, I lived with a host family in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for nine months. While there, I immersed myself in the language, the culture and, most importantly, the food. My host father was an excellent cook, and most nights I would feast on whatever he made. He had a preference for pig’s ears, something I quickly learned to enjoy.

I love Taiwanese food. It is somehow sweet, savory and light all at the same time. For me, Taiwanese food has become synonymous with comfort, and it takes me back to nights sitting around my host family’s table in Kaohsiung chatting about our days. When I first came to Saigon, I immediately started searching for Taiwanese restaurants. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Va Thanh.

Va Thanh operated in Saigon since 1998, and they just moved to a new location in District 5 four months ago. The entire restaurant is spotless and very minimalist. A television hangs prominently for all customers to see as restaurants in Taiwan often have the news playing and Va Thanh is no different. The owner told me that if he doesn’t keep the news on, customers complain. At lunchtime, there is a steady stream of Taiwanese clientele chatting away while watching the latest developments.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s tea party aims to burst Beijing’s one-China bubble

The Washington Post
Date: Dec. 15, 2019
By:Anna Fifield 

Customers wait at a Coco bubble tea shop in Beijing on Aug. 9. The brand has faced a boycott in Hong Kong as well as Taiwan, where people share the same commitment to self-rule in China’s shadow. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Call it the Taipei tea party. Or the new tea wars. For in Taiwan, the pearly is political.

To show their solidarity with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and their commitment to Taiwan’s self-rule, many consumers here are boycotting bubble-tea chains that support the “one country, two systems” formula China uses to rule Hong Kong and that it hopes one day to extend to Taiwan.

“I deliberately came here today because it’s an independent Taiwan store and it doesn’t support ‘one country, two systems,’ ” said financial-services worker Alex Shuie as he waited for his drink, known as bubble or boba or pearl tea, at the Ruguo stand in central Taipei.

“There are so many options, so we can avoid the bad ones and still have lots of places to frequent,” said Shuie, who each week drinks about five cups of bubble tea, characterized by its chewy tapioca balls.    [FULL  STORY]