As SARS continues to upset the routines of everyday life and people stay at home rather than risk going out, many businesses are suffering from the effects of the pernicious disease.
Dimmed by the market slowdown, a number of local companies are now coming up with all kinds of bright ideas in the hope of offsetting their losses.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TIEN LAI SPRING RESORT
The familiar practice of low pricing has been effective in bringing back some customers, but hot spring resorts have gone a step further with their claims that a soak in a hot spring pool is so good for you it can boost the immune system and help defend the body against SARS.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TIEN LAI SPRING RESORT
Lucy Lee (
A different tack has been taken by two resorts on Yangmingshan, at Peitou (北投) and Kinshan (金山). They are trying to attract the general public by promoting the idea that one of the most effective ways of beating SARS is to take a healthy hot spring, away from the disease's hot spots in the city and enjoy gourmet food at a scenic hideaway.
As a result of these promotional efforts, or perhaps because they are ready to get back to normal life, people in Taipei have responded to the calls of the hot spring owners, as the large number of visitors to resort hotels on Yangminshan last weekend showed.
The hot springs in these areas mostly originate from the Tatun mountain range (
Bathing in hot springs is a favorite leisure activity of many Taiwanese that was picked up from the Japanese during the 50-year colonial-rule period beginning in 1895. In Japan the merits of taking a daily dip in the hot spring have been preached like a gospel since the eighth century.
The story goes that Taiwan first acquired the habit when a Japanese businessman from Osaka, named Hirada Gengo (
In addition to Peitou and Yangmingshan, Guanziling (
The hot spring waters in Peitou belong to the acid sulfur type, which are quite different from the nearby springs in Yangmingshan, which contain a weak alkali type of water. In Guanziling, however, the spring water carries alkali and salt, whereas in Sichongxi the water is distinguished by its weak alkali and carbonic acid content.
Hot spring resorts have also developed in Wulai (
All hot spring resorts claim their spring waters have extraordinary healing effects, such as improving skin tone, increasing circulation and digestion, as well as other functions of the body. Also, many scientists have confirmed the beneficial effects of bathing in hot springs.
One thing is certain, however, and that is, when a person relaxes in a hot spring pool, natural or suffused with fragrance, the comfort naturally brings forth a refreshing effect, spiritual and physical, against which little else can compete.
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum last week, said the US is confident it can defeat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Pacific, though its advantage is shrinking. Paparo warned that the PRC might launch a “war of necessity” even if it thinks it could not win, a wise observation. As I write, the PRC is carrying out naval and air exercises off its coast that are aimed at Taiwan and other nations threatened by PRC expansionism. A local defense official said that China’s military activity on Monday formed two “walls” east
The latest military exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did not follow the standard Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formula. The US and Taiwan also had different explanations for the war games. Previously the CCP would plan out their large-scale military exercises and wait for an opportunity to dupe the gullible into pinning the blame on someone else for “provoking” Beijing, the most famous being former house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Those military exercises could not possibly have been organized in the short lead time that it was known she was coming.
The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory — and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent and puzzling it has tested the best-available scientific predictions about how the climate functions. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures one year to the next. But they are still debating what might have contributed to this
For the authorities that brought the Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道) into existence, the route is as much about culture as it is about hiking. Han culture dominates the coastal and agricultural flatlands of Tainan and Chiayi counties, but as the Greenway climbs along its Tribal Trail (原鄉之路) section, hikers pass through communities inhabited by members of the Tsou Indigenous community. Leaving Chiayi County’s Dapu Village (大埔), walkers follow Provincial Highway 3 to Dapu Bridge where a sign bearing the Tsou greeting “a veo veo yu” marks the point at which the Greenway turns off to follow Qingshan Industrial Road (青山產業道路)
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