The issue was resolved by 12.30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/05
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following track issues with the Taiwan Taoyuan Metro Tuesday morning, all services are now running as normal as of 1 p.m.

During a routine safety inspection at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, a problem was discovered with a railway switch on the Taoyuan Metro track between Taipei and Sanchong (三種).

As a result of emergency maintenance procedures, journey times both ways along the route were extended by 30 minutes. Boarding at station A1 (Taipei Main Station) was suspended, although passengers could still board at stations A2 and beyond.

The problem was resolved by 12.30 p.m. and Taoyuan Metro services have resumed normal operations. Passengers have been able to board at station A1 since 1 p.m.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/05
By: Huang Li-yun and Chi Jo-yao 

Taipei, Feb. 5 (CNA) The Taiwan New Cultural Movement Museum in Taipei was once a police station but today it attracts daily visitors, who go there mainly to see the detention center and torture chamber that were housed in the dingy interior.

Built in 1933 during the period of Japanese colonization, the baroque-style building on Ningxia Road in the city’s Datong District was nothing special, according to a police officer who worked there for 12 years before moving to a new precinct nearby.

During the Japanese era, it was the Taipei North Police Station, and after World War II it became the Datong Police Station, which was staffed by some 200 officers crowded into the drab interior, said the police officer, who asked not to be named.

He said files were stacked haphazardly everywhere and the street noises penetrated the walls day and night.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 06, 2019
By: Chen Feng-li and Lee Jung-ping  /  Staff reporters

An estimated 70,000 people flocked to the Zihnan Temple (紫南宮) in Nantou County

yesterday, the first day of the Year of the Pig, to receive special coins and pray for wealth and fortune.

A famous Earth God temple in the county’s Jhushan Township (竹山), the temple traditionally distributes a “mother coin” (錢母) — which is believed to attract wealth and bring in more money throughout the year — to visitors on the first day of the lunar year.

A family from Keelung, surnamed Tsai (蔡), arrived at the temple at about 4am yesterday and were among the first in the line, which extended nearly 7km.

This year was the sixth time that the family has visited the temple for the coins, said 11-year-old Tsai Liang-kai (蔡良鍇), who was the first in line to receive one.

He added that the temple’s director, Chuang Chiu-an (莊秋安), gave him a red envelope containing NT$2,000.

The temple this year prepared more than 50,000 “mother coins,” Chuang said, adding that the first 2,000 people in line qualified for a draw, with prizes such as gold ingots, gold rings and cash of NT$600 to NT$4,800.    [FULL  STORY]

Wind Power Monthly
Date: 4 February 2019
By: Alastair Dutton

The recent negotiations between the industry and Taiwan’s government on a Feed-In Tariff goes to show just how far the market has yet to go to become a major offshore wind player, writes Alastair Dutton, chairman of GWEC’s Global Offshore Wind Task Force.
Taiwan’s government wants 5.5GW of offshore wind by 2025, currently has 8MW (pic: Swancor)

The government’s target of 5.5GW offshore target by 2025, plus an attractive and flexible regulatory framework successfully stimulated the interest of the offshore wind industry around the world.

Projections forecast the offshore wind industry could bring some TWD 880 billion ($28.63 billion) of inward investment into Taiwan by 2025 and create some 20,000 jobs.

However, this ambition is not without its challenges.

In late 2018, the Taiwanese Government proposed revisions to the feed in tariff (FIT): a 12.7% reduction in the FIT rate, from TWD 5,8498/MWh to TWD 5,106/MWh; a cap on the rate of 3,600 full load hours; and the removal of the optional accelerated FIT for the first ten years, the so called “ladder tariff”.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/04
By: Joseph Yeh, CNA staff reporter

Award-winning Taiwanese novelist William Lien (連明偉) has always had an eye for overseas adventure, performing his military service by teaching Chinese in the Philippines and working odd jobs in Canada and Hawaii after that.

So when he saw an offer online a few years ago to volunteer in St. Lucia, a diplomatic ally of Taiwan, to teach table tennis, he was very much intrigued and decided to give it a try, seeing it as an opportunity for a new experience.

Beyond testing himself, however, he would also be serving as an unofficial ambassador for his country because the position was advertised by TaiwanICDF, a government-funded agency that runs the country’s foreign aid programs, as part of its volunteer program.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 05, 2019
By: Liao Shu-ling  /  Staff reporter

Two social workers in Yunlin County yesterday invited three immigrant single parents to a traditional Lunar New Year’s eve banquet to help ease their homesickness.

Lin Li-na (林麗娜), who has a son in junior-high school, said that visiting her home country, Indonesia, was a luxury that she could not afford, as the airfare alone would cost about NT$50,000 (US$1,626).

Lin added that she dared not fly because she has asthma.

Wu Mu-ni (吳木妮), another Indonesian, who was married to a Taiwanese who passed away two decades ago, said she has had a hard time raising her children alone and that returning home is almost impossible for her.    [FULL  STORY]

Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival is listed as one of the world’s three major folk festivals

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/03
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Tourism Bureau of Tainan City Government teams up with six travel agencies to offer package tours for attending this year’s Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival as well as the Yuejin Lantern Festival, the bureau said on Friday.

“Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival is listed as one of the world’s three major folk festivals, and is also one of the most significant religious activities in Taiwan,” the bureau said.

CNN called the festival “undeniably one of the world’s most dangerous celebrations” as thousands of soaring firecrackers are launched into the crowd. Therefore, festival-goers must wear protection gear to avoid getting hurt.

Legend has it that the tradition of setting off beehive fireworks originated in 1885 as a cholera epidemic raged in the streets of Yanshui. As the society was medically underdeveloped at the time, victims of the disease multiplied daily and the local population lived in fear. They prayed to Guan Di, the god of war, to bring an end to this calamity and save them.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/03
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 3 (CNA) The rise of “fast fashion” has not only changed shopping habits but has also led to the creation of more waste as people are discarding clothes at twice the rate as in 2000, according to Greenpeace Taiwan.

In addition, people on average have 60 percent more clothing items than they did 19 years ago, Greenpeace Taiwan project manager Lo Ko-jung (羅可容) said in a recent interview with CNA, citing global data.

“What the data indicates, whether in Taiwan or globally, is that consumers are buying more clothes and discarding them faster,” Lo said.

With that trend, she said, the strain on the environment is increasing because the fashion industry — from garment production to disposal — causes environmental damage.
[FULL  STORY]