The Taipei City Government opened a 500m bike route yesterday in front of the Taipei Water Park, connecting Gongguan (公館) to the riverside bike path that runs from Sindian (新店) to Tamsui (淡水), in a bid to provide a better environment for the growing number of cyclists in the city.
To avoid affecting sidewalks and roads in the area, the government established the route on land in the water park, tearing down an outer wall to allow the path. The reconstruction cost the city government NT$38 million (US$1.1 million).
Taipei City’s Water Department suggested that residents could relax in the park and then ride along the bike route to the riverside in the afternoon or at night, as the department installed lighting systems along the route.
Addressing the launching ceremony at the park, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said the route would provide a safer and more convenient environment for cyclists and promised to increase the budget for urban renewal projects in Gongguan to bring more culture and art to the area.
A budget of NT$900 million will be listed in the next three years for urban renewal projects in Gongguan, including reconstruction of Treasure Hill (寶藏巖) and construction of Taipei City Hakka Cultural Park.
Treasure Hill, formerly home to war veterans who came to Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after its defeat by the Communists in 1949, is being rebuilt as the city government plans to turn the community into a park. Hakka Cultural Park, on the other hand, will be constructed on the current site of the Taipei Children’s Museum of Transportation, and is expected to be completed next year.
Taipei City and Taipei County now have more than 500km of dedicated bike paths. Taipei City has provided 16,000 racks for locking bicycles, including 1,100 double-decker racks outside MRT stations, and plans to to add more.
The department said it would expand the sidewalks on Dingzhou Road and create more bike routes in the near future.
In response to growing concerns abo0ut bike theft, Hau said the city government would instruct police to put more effort into stopping the crime.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents