The Kaohsiung City Government said it is mulling turning the historic landmark, the North Gate casemates into a scenic spot for visitors to view the sunset and Kaohsiung Harbor.
The gate, located in the city’s Gushan District (鼓山), was built by Koxinga’s (鄭成功) son Zheng Jing (鄭經) in 1681 as a watchtower guarding what was then the Cihou (旗后) area.
Although the gate is a municipal historic site, it has been inaccessible to the public for the past 60 years because of a Ministry of National Defense military deployment there.
The city’s Urban Development Bureau said yesterday that the ministry had agreed to allow the city government to open the site overlooking Sizihwan (西子灣) to the public.
The bureau added it would send a proposal to the city’s Cultural Assets Review Board in six months on how to revive the landmark and its neighborhood.
In related news, Urban Spotlight Arcade, another city landmark, was reopened on Saturday after the company managing it ceased trading in July last year because of poor business and a monthly NT$300,000 royalty the company had to pay to the city government.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said the city government had decided to lower the royalty for the site, charging the new company operating the site about 6 percent of its turnover.
The Urban Spotlight Arcade — an illuminated walkway at the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit System’s Central Park Station — was launched during the term of former Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).
Chen called the arcade “an enchanting and unique scenic spot,” saying that the city government had come under great pressure to reopen the site since the withdrawal of the company that previously managed it.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
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