Xinhua
Date: 2018-09-02
By: Xinhua, Editor: Xiang Bo

TAIPEI, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) — In front of dozens of curious tourists in the Alishan House in the scenic area in Taiwan, He Ping vividly talks about the planets with Powerpoint slides and a paper planisphere.

“If you hold the planisphere with your purlicue, you will find your thumb right on the Lyra constellation, whose brightest star is Vega,” he says.

He is an astronomy teacher at the hotel in Alishan, a mountain resort and nature reserve in Chiayi County, southwest of Taiwan. He has been recruited by the hotel to draw more tourists there as the island struggles to retain visitors from the mainland amid a tourism lull in Taiwan.

The current lull followed the election of Taiwan’s new leader Tsai Ing-wen, who assumed office in 2016. Tsai has refused to adhere to the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle, angering people on both sides of the Strait.    [FULL  STORY]