■ CULTURE
Festival to start in Taitung
The eighth festival of Austronesian Cultures will commence on Saturday in Taitung County with the theme of "strength and beauty." Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞) said this year's event would include Aboriginal dance and folk song performances in addition to an exhibition of twelve 3.5m wood carvings by 12 Aboriginal artists and a "Taiwan beer night" on the last night. Festival goers will also be entertained by performers from the Solomon Islands, Palau, Korea and Okinawa, Kuang said. The National Museum of Prehistory will host indoor activities, while outdoor activities will be held at Taitung Forest Park, she said.
■ SOCIETY
Hotline up for ex-inmates
The Taiwan After-care Association has set up a telephone line providing counseling services for prison inmates released under a commutation statute that will go into effect tomorrow. Released inmates can dial 0800-788595 for counseling, association Chairman Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) said. A total of 10,969 inmates will be released under the commutation program, which was implemented to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident and the 20th anniversary of the end of 38 years of martial law. The association has also taken other measures to help released inmates return to normal life and to prevent recidivism, Yen said. Staff of the association will be deployed in prisons around the country tomorrow to offer rehabilitation information about returning to school, employment opportunities and medical treatment to the inmates prior to their release.
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
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
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