A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilor yesterday slammed the Taipei City Government for offering an “embarrassing” travel package to Japanese tourists that includes stops at the Taipei Martyrs Shrine and the suspended Maokong Gondola.
The “Good Fortune” travel package designed by the city’s Department of Information and Tourism and EVA Airways offers a free tour guide and prizes to Japanese tourists visiting Taipei between June 15 and September.
The guide suggests six routes, which include stops at Taipei Confucius Temple, Xingtian Temple, Shilin Night Market, Taipei 101, the Martyrs Shrine, Maokong Gondola and Beitou Park.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
“Isn’t it ridiculous to take Japanese to Martyrs Shrine to pay their respects to heroes who sacrificed themselves against the Japanese?” DPP Taipei City Councilor Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said.
The Maokong Gondola has been suspended for several months, while Beitou Park has been under construction for three years, Chuang said, condemning the city officials for negligence.
“The travel package planners were obviously planning the routes in their heads. They don’t know the Maokong Gondola is suspended and they don’t know the situation at Beitou Park,” Chuang said.
The promotional package cost the city government NT$10 million (US$300,000), Chuang said.
However, Huang Ru-miao (黃如妙), a division chief at the department, said the department had sent the package to Japanese travel agencies for review and they had agreed to the routes. Many Japanese want to visit Martyrs Shrine to “reflect upon part of Japanese history,” she said.
The department included the cable car in the routes because of the scenery and tea culture in the Maokong area, she said.
Meanwhile, the spread of the swine flu in Japan is taking its toll on Taiwan’s travel industry.
EVA Air president Jeng Kuang-yeun (鄭光遠) said yesterday the airline would suspend its regular flights from Taipei to Los Angeles via Osaka, starting Tuesday.
“Our flights to Japan suffered a great deal because of the swine flu,” Jeng said. “Now that the spread of the flu appears to have slowed down, we hope the situation would encourage people to start traveling again and that passengers will gradually return over the summer.”
Tourism Bureau statistics show that approximately 79,000 Japanese visited Taiwan in April, down 3 percent from April last year.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
MUCH-NEEDED: After China demonstrated its capabilities to deploy vertical launching systems, Taiwan needs air defense systems such as NASAMS, a defense expert said The US’ approval of exports of three advanced air defense missile systems to Taiwan signified NATO’s goodwill toward the nation, a Taiwanese defense expert said. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday announced the US$1.16 billion sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and the US$828 million sale of AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar turnkey systems. The NASAMS is a network that uses ground-launched Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to intercept hostile aircraft, drones and cruise missiles. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the state-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said
RSS