■ TRANSPORTATION
MRT segment almost ready
The Nangang Station segment of the Nangang line eastern extension will be operational by the end of December if it passes the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ preliminary assessment on Friday, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) said yesterday, adding that travel time from the Nangang MRT station to Taipei Main station would be 15 minutes. The TRTC said the Nangang eastern extension is being built underground eastward from Kunyang Station to Nangang Station below Zhongxiao E Road Sec. 7, on the southern side of the Taiwan Railway yard. It will continue northward, passing through the tunnels of the High Speed Railway and Taiwan Railway and to Academia Road, where the Nangang Exhibition Hall station is to be built under Nanxi Park.
■ SOCIETY
Orchard program unveiled
The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday unveiled its orange orchard adoption program, a pilot program to pre-sell and market domestic agricultural goods to local businesses. In a joint venture with PayEasy.com, an online shopping site, the program has received the support of a dozen businesses, including Tai-shin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), which adopted 11 orange orchard units during yesterday’s launch. Using Internet marketing, the council intends to connect city businesses with rural farmers and help businesses give back to farm villages by finding buyers for produce before it is harvested, COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said. Every unit (0.1 hectares) of orange orchard will yield about 4,000kg of oranges, the council said, adding that donors can also opt to donate the oranges to any one of the 160 charity organizations nationwide in an act of “double charity.”
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final