Chinese family’s ill-fated trip ends in rubble of Hualien quake

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/10
By: Lee Hsien-feng, Kuo Chi-hsun and Lee Hsin-Yin 

Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) A Chinese family of five who are believed to have died in the Hualien earthquake only checked into the hotel devastated in the earthquake after a car accident and a last minute change of plan, according to police and others who met them.

The free independent tourists, who checked into Room 201 at Beauty Inn located in the partially-collapsed Yun Men Tsui Ti commercial and residential complex in downtown Hualien, remained officially missing as rescue efforts in the wake of the Feb. 6 earthquake in Hualien County entered the fourth day.

The family’s ill-fated trip to Taiwan encountered its first problem when they headed to Hualien on Feb. 5, but were involved in an traffic accident on leaving Kenting in southern Taiwan, according to a Pingtung County police station.   [FULL  STORY]