Want China Tiomes
Date: 2015-06-10
By: Chen Yi-chun and Staff Reporter

Around 20% of mainland Chinese tourists have canceled their planned trips to South Korea

due to the outbreak of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the country, a Chinese travel agent said Monday. It is estimated that about 100,000 tourists from China will cancel their travel plans to South Korea in June.

A similar 20% of tourists from Hong Kong and Taiwan have canceled trips to South Korea, with up to 50% of them choosing to fly to other destinations instead, according to the travel agent.

Tourism from Liaoning and Shandong, the two Chinese provinces closest to South Korea, has been strongly hit, as well as from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, with the number of tourists planning to visit the country cut by 50% or even down to zero, according to reports from different local travel agents.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/08
By: Sophia Chen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 8 (CNA) An eighth grader at Dacheng Junior High School in Puli, Nantou County, celebrated his birthday Monday after suffering a near-death experience caused by sudden cardiac arrest, with his mother thanking those who brought her son back to life with their immediate and correct resuscitation procedure.

The teenager, identified only by his surname Chen to protect his privacy, was a healthy student passionate about dancing. He suddenly lost consciousness during class May 26, and had no pulse when the school nurse reached him.

Without wasting any time, the nurse performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the student and was joined by the principal and other teachers, who continued the procedure until an ambulance arrived.

The paramedics at once affixed an automated external defibrillator (AED) monitoring patch to Chen’s chest, which diagnosed the boy with ventricle fibrillation (VF) and suggested an electric shock of 120 joules.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-08
By: Wu Kuan-chin and Staff Reporter

Some 9.42 million students registered to take China’s National Higher Education

Entrance Examinations (or Gaokao), which started June 7. For most of them, it is considered a make-or-break exam for which they have been preparing their whole lives. But the world of entertainment offers some examples of stars who had to take several attempts to get on the bottom rung of the ladder of success, like movie stars Gong Li and Tang Wei.

Gong took the national exams a total of four times. The first time was in 1983 when she hoped to get into one of two arts universities in Shandong, but her test scores were too low. After failing to do well in the Gaokao in each of the following two years, Gong launched her entertainment career to make a living while preparing for the tests at the same time. But in a chance encounter, film director Yin Dawei saw her potential as an actor and he proposed to teach her the craft.

Trained by Yin, Gong again registered for the Gaokao but she did not score enough for admission to the Central Academy of Drama, even though the examiners were satisfied with her performance in an interview. The university eventually made an exception to give her a place in its performing arts department. In 1987 she got her first film role in rookie director Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum, the start of what would become a defining partnership in modern Chinese cinema.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/08
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 8 (CNA) The worst drought to hit Taiwan in decades is finally over thanks to the seasonal plum rains, which have freed all cities and counties in the country from water rationing restrictions.

The Water Resources Agency announced Monday that it has lifted phase-one water rationing measures implemented in New Taipei’s Banqiao, Xinzhuang and Linkou districts, Taoyuan, Miaoli County, Taichung, northern Changhua County, Chiayi City, Chiayi County and Tainan.

The announcement means that there are no longer any rationing measures in place on the island.

In the government-adopted three-phase water rationing system, phase-one means reduced water pressure at night, phase-two calls for water supply restrictions for big users who usually consume more than 1,000 cubic meters per month, and phase-three rationing cuts the water supply to entire areas for two days a week on a rotating basis.     [FULL  STORUY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-08
By: CNA

A funeral ceremony for actor Shone An, who died June 1 of liver cancer aged 31, took place in Tainan in southern Taiwan on Monday.

Relatives and many celebrity friends of An gathered at the Tainan City Mortuary Services Office to pay their last respects.

TV talk show hostess Dee Hsu, also known as Xiao S, visibly distressed, said, “He had such a serious illness but never told us.”

TV host Kang Kang said An’s death is a reminder for people to take good care of their health. “It’s a pity to die at such a young age. Living is not only for yourself but also for people you love and those who love you,” he said.

An, whose real name was Huang Yi-cheng, died at the age of 31 at his home in Tainan.

An was a member of boy band Comic Boyz, which disbanded in 2005. He also appeared in films and TV dramas such as Case Sensitive and The Emperor’s Harem.     [FULL  STOERY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-07
By: CNA

The execution of six death-row inmates on Friday was carried out in accordance with law

without any political calculation, deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang said Saturday.

The executions have nothing to do with quelling public outrage, and people should not make wild speculations, Chen said.

He was responding to a statement issued by Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, which said the execution of the six inmates is a “regressive decision that does not deliver justice.”

The group said that they were carried out amid public outrage following the random killing of an 8-year-old girl in a Taipei school last week by an alumnus of the school who was unemployed and claimed he had hallucinations.

“The decision to carry out the executions reeks of political calculations by a government attempting to gain points by quelling public anger,” it said.     [FULL  STORY]