Dismissing China's Minister of Communications Zhang Chun-xian's (
"Before technicians are able to overcome the technical difficulties and potential hazards of construction [for the project], the proposal is simply impractical," Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
"If the Chinese government really wants to contribute and do something good for the relationship between Beijing and Taipei, we hope it will be something more practical than this," he said.
Zhang announced yesterday that China will construct seven highways around Beijing as well as nine north-south and 18 east-west highways right across the country.
The highway network will be nicknamed "7918 net" based on this distribution of carriageways. The highway to Taipei is also connected to the "7918 net."
"The idea behind building the highway network as well as a highway to Taipei is to increase the communication, in terms of traffic and the economy, within the country," Zhang said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications responded to the grand plan with a "no comment" yesterday.
When first asked whether the ministry would comment on the plan, Vice Minister Tsai Duei (
"I read it in the evening newspaper. But I can't comment on anything at the moment because I really doubt the reliability of the story," Tsai said.
If the highway is built, technicians will face the challenge of building a tunnel between Taiwan and Fujian 130km in length.
Currently, the longest underwater tunnel in the world is the Aomori Hakodate Tunnel in Japan, which is almost 54km in length.
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
RSS