NANFANGAO LANDMARK: Authorities are working to determine what led to the rupture of the bridge in Yilan, as rescue workers look for four missing people

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 02, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

A bridge in Yilan County collapsed yesterday morning, killing two people, while four remained trapped and at least 10 were injured, including six severely wounded, the National Fire Agency (NFA) said.

The landmark arch Nanfangao Bridge (南方澳橋) hovering above the entry to the port suddenly ruptured and fell to the ground at about 9:30am, crushing three fishing boats, and an oil tank truck just about to exit the bridge at the time fell to the ground and caught fire.

The fire was extinguished shortly after and the driver was rescued.

Except for the Taiwanese truck driver, the other nine injured were foreigners — six Filipinos and three Indonesians working on the fishing boats caught in the accident.    [FULL  STORY]

Parents race to pick up kids as Hualien, Taiwan suddenly announces office, school closures

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/30
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Although seven other counties and cities had already announced office and school closures on Sunday evening (Sept. 29) in anticipation of Typhoon Mitag's arrival, Hualien County did not make such closures official until 7:30 a.m. this morning, leaving many students, parents, and teachers in the lurch.

By 10 p.m. on Sunday, New Taipei City, Taipei City, Keelung City, Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Yilan County, and Taitung County (Green Island and Orchid Island) had announced the closure of offices and schools on Monday (Sept. 30) in anticipation of Mitag's wrath. However, it was not until 7:35 a.m. this morning that Hualien Magistrate Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) took to Facebook to announce the following:

"According to an additional report released by the CWB at 7 a.m. today, the data for wind and rain has been revised for 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. today. The average wind levels will reach 6-7 level [Beaufort scale] winds, with gusts of up to level 9-10, which is the standard for stopping work and classes. Classes in Hualien County will be canceled for the whole day on Monday [Sept. 30]."

By this time, many parents had already sent their children to school and were blindsided by the news of the suspended classes. Parents quickly turned their cars around and rushed back to pick their children back up, leading to traffic jams outside of schools.    [FULL  STORY]

ArtDaily.com
September 30, 2019

TAIPEI.- Following a successful first edition with over 28,000 visitors, Taipei Dangdai will return with a

strengthened line-up of 97 leading galleries and an expanded leadership team to include contemporary arts expert Robin Peckham, who takes up the role of CoDirector, working alongside fair Co-Founder and Co-Director Magnus Renfrew. Presented by UBS and held at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1 (TaiNEX 1), the fair will run from Friday 17 January until Sunday 19 January 2020, with a VIP Preview and Vernissage on 16 January.

The second edition of Taipei Dangdai builds on its mission to showcase leading galleries from around the world within the context of the very best galleries from Taipei and Asia more widely. Of the 97 galleries participating in the 2020 edition, 22 have permanent spaces in Taiwan, many of whom will be presenting the work of leading emerging artists from the region. The participating galleries will show in three core sectors. In addition to the Galleries sector, Taipei Dangdai includes special sectors for Young Galleries, which subsidizes galleries founded within the last eight years selected on the basis of their overall programming, and Solos, which spotlights singular focused presentations by emerging artists and exceptional contemporary and historical creative figures.

A special Salon sector provides a platform to encourage and nurture collectors at all levels of resources and experience through a showcase of work priced below 8,000 USD from each participating gallery presented in a designated area. The Installations sector spread throughout the fair celebrates the full spectrum of artists’ ambitions with outsized or immersive projects beyond the capacity of a standard fair booth presentation.

As a platform for creative ideas and thought leadership, the Ideas Program returns with a curated selection of talks and other events with renowned cultural figures from Taiwan and beyond. This highly multidisciplinary program will begin in the fall and culminate over the fair’s duration and feature art industry experts as well as recognized public figures from literature, design, science, and the humanities.    [FULL  STORY]

Epoch Times
Date: September 29, 2019
By: Frank Fang

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Health authorities in Taiwan are warning travelers not to bring any meat products from East Timor, after the Southeast Asian nation confirmed an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF).

East Timor became the 10th Asian country to be hit with the disease, following China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, Laos, Burma, the Philippines, and South Korea. ASF was not found on the Asian continent prior to the initial outbreak in China in August last year. However, none of these governments have publicly attributed their ASF outbreaks to the spreading of the virus from China.

While the disease isn’t dangerous to humans, there is no effective vaccine against the virus, which can spread among domestic and wild pigs.

Chen Chi-chung, minister of Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture, issued the traveler warning on his Facebook page on Sept. 28, saying that the outbreak in East Timor is severe, as it noted a massive number of cases in its first report to the intergovernmental organization World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).    [FULL  STORY]

Enjoy the shaded areas of Lovers' Waterfall and volcanic landforms, hot springs, irrigation waterways, and waterfalls

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/09/29
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – It’s the end of September yet the summer heat still lingers and everywhere people are out they seek shade from the sun. Look no further than Lovers' Waterfall (情人瀑布), in Beitou District’s Quanyuan borough (北投區泉源里), according to a Taipei Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) press release on Friday (Sept. 27).

GEO says the waterfall by Xingyi Bridge (行義橋) is a cool spot and a popular place for wedding photography. Across from Lovers' Waterfall is a volcanic geothermal zone called Liouhuang Valley Recreation Area (硫磺谷遊憩區).

The volcanic field is traversed by a 750-meter trail and the entrance is located at the intersection of Xingyi Road (行義路) and Quanyuan Road (泉源路). It takes about 20 minutes to walk the trail, where there is a foot bath and several scenic lookouts that have boards telling visitors about the area, in addition to providing places to rest.

After walking through the volcanic area, which provides hot springs for many restaurants along Xingyi Road, visitors can walk along Dongsheng Road (東昇路) to the 18 Fen irrigation waterways (十八份水圳). Here they can stroll around in an idyllic setting that overlooks the Taipei basin.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/09/29
By: Ku Chuan and Emerson Lim

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) A Hong Kong pro-independence political activist used the term "Chinazi" Sunday

to describe China and asked Taiwan to side with the Hong Kong protesters.

Andy Chan (陳浩天), former convener of the banned Hong Kong National Party, arrived in Taiwan Friday to take part in Sunday's pro-Hong Kong demonstration.

Chan was arrested and charged in Hong Kong in August in relation to the pro-democracy rallies. He was released on bail.

In his speech titled "Taiwan-Hong Kong alliance against Chinazi" at a luncheon in Taipei held by several pro-independence organizations, Chan described China as a Nazi state due to its extreme nationalism, racism, military coercion of neighboring countries and the operation of concentration camps set up by the Chinese authorities.    [FULL  STORY]