Taiwan's Soviet-born former first lady Faina Chiang Fang-liang (
"When the services are done, the former first lady's body will be cremated in Keelung. After that, her ashes will be located along with former president Chiang Ching-kuo's (蔣經國) coffin in the temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County," said navy Captain Liou Chih-chien (劉志堅), spokesman for the ministry.
"She will be eventually buried with the two former president Chiangs at Wuchih Military Cemetery in the spring," he added.
According to the ministry, at the funeral services Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) heavyweights Lee Huan (李煥), Hau Pei-tsun (
Asked why Faina Chiang would be cremated in Keelung, Liou said that it was a decision made by the Chiang family.
The spokesman said that only the hospital's funeral chapels and the Touliao temporary mausoleum will be open to the public. The rest of the funeral services will be restricted to family members only.
Currently, the embalmed bodies of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo were put in temporary mausoleums in Taoyuan County's Tzuhu (慈湖) and Touliao (頭寮) respectively, originally awaiting proper burial in their hometown in Zhejiang Province in southeastern China once the KMT's forces conquered China, which they were unable to do.
At the family's behest, the ministry will help relocate the coffins to the Wuchih Military Cemetery in March or April.
In the meantime, their tomb designer also prepared another two sites for their wives -- Soong Mayling (蔣宋美齡) and Faina Chiang. However, the Chiangs do not have a plan to use one of the extra sites for Soong since she was buried in Manhattan, New York.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail