More than 4,000 fans of the boy band Fahrenheit (飛輪海) gathered at the National Taiwan University auditorium yesterday afternoon to meet their idols in a concert that aimed to promote the tourism industry.
Although the event was scheduled to begin at 3pm, eager fans began lining up outside the auditorium in the morning to secure good spots.
Some fans were chosen to play games with their idols on stage and received prizes, including a three-day trip around Taiwan. Each fan also received a poster, an Easycard and a glowing fan featuring a group photo of Fahrenheit.
PHOTO: CNA
Wayne Liu (劉喜臨), director of the Tourism Bureau’s international affairs division, said Fahrenheit were the nation’s tourism ambassadors in Japan and South Korea this year, replacing their predecessor, boyband F4. He said that while F4 had been effective in generating interest among female fans in their late 30s and early 40s, Fahrenheit appeared to be the favorite among people in the 18-to-25 age group.
The event will be broadcast through Azio TV’s Asia network and the Internet service IM.TV, he said.
Aside from Japan and South Korea, the band also drew fans from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Statistics from the bureau showed that about 1.08 million Japanese tourists visited Taiwan last year, down 6.83 percent from 2007. Overall, approximately 16 million Japanese traveled abroad last year, a decrease of 7.6 percent from 2007.
While the value of the South Korean won dropped drastically last year, more than 250,000 South Koreans visited Taiwan, a growth of 11.71 percent from the previous year.
In related news, 1,310 diamond-class sales managers from Japan’s Daihatsu Motor will be arriving this week on a four-day tour offered by the company for top employees.
The bureau said this was the third time the company had organized the tour. Good food and friendliness toward Japanese were two of the main reasons why Taiwan was selected as the destination for the tour, the bureau said. While some arrived yesterday, the rest were scheduled to arrive at different times between now and next Tuesday.
The Daihatsu tour was preceded by one organized by the Japanese cosmetic firm POLA, which rewarded 1,300 sales representatives with a free trip to Taiwan last week.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its