Historians, residents and community college students in Taipei City’s Wenshan District (文山) are making efforts to preserve a local archeological site discovered 80 years ago.
“During the construction of Taihoku Imperial University — now called National Taiwan University — in 1928, a farmer discovered some pieces of stone tools at the construction site,” Cheng Ching-lung (鄭景隆), a Wenshan Community College student and an amateur archeologist who has been studying the Shiwufen (十五份) archeological site, said at a forum held at the site yesterday.
The site’s name came about because it is located approximately within the boundaries of an ancient village called Shiwufen.
However, the 1928 discovery was only taken seriously decades later, after more stone tools and weapons were found.
“We’ve done tests on them and found that these items date back to the Neolithic Age, which was about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago,” said Liu Ying-san (劉瑩三), dean of National Dong Hwa University’s Institute of Earth Sciences.
When residents learned of the significance of the site, they and the community college launched an effort to preserve it.
“After discussing the issue with several academics in the fields of history and archeology, we filed an application with Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs,” Cheng said.
But there was not enough evidence to show a prehistoric community, the city said. The area was labeled as a “possible archeological site,” which meant the city would not protect it, Cheng said.
“Even though the city government didn’t respond to our request positively, we can still do something,” Cheng Hsiu-chuan (鄭秀娟), president of Wenshan Community College, said.
“As we don’t have enough items or funds to build a museum, we’re working to create a ‘virtual museum’ online to showcase the archeological findings,” she said.
Chien Yu-hwa (簡玉華), a Council of Cultural Affairs official, lauded the efforts of the Wenshan residents.
“Although there may still be a long way to go before the Shiwufen archeological site can be fully revealed, it’s heading in a positive direction as your efforts have already successfully raised the awareness of the community on its history,” Chien said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS