Greeted by hundreds of enthusiastic visitors, the much-awaited Galeon Andalucia arrived at Wushih Harbor (烏石港) in Yilan County yesterday morning after taking refuge in Keelung last week to avoid Typhoon Fanapi.
The 17th-century Spanish replica came at the invitation of the Yilan County Government, which had initially planned to hold visits at Wushih Harbor for four days. However, the typhoon forced organizers to shorten the activity to two days. The ship is scheduled to leave for Hong Kong tomorrow.
Many people arrived at the harbor early to line up, for fear of missing the opportunity to explore the ship, which started allowing visitors on board at 10am.
PHOTO: HU CHIEN-SEN, TAIPEI TIMES
Although the organizer limited the tour to 10 minutes per person and no more than 100 people at a time, most visitors did not follow the rules, forcing people in line to wait for as long as two hours in the scorching sun before being admitted onto the ship.
The Andalucia left Seville, Spain, in March and followed the route set by its Spanish predecessors 400 years ago, passing through the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Malacca Straits, stopping in several countries along the way before arriving in Shanghai in June.
The ship, which is equipped with three large masts, seven big sails and 10 replica cannons, also served as the mobile exhibition room for the Spanish Hall at this year’s World Expo in Shanghai.
Pepelu de Miguel, who serves on board the Andalucia, said the rise of the galleon in the 17th-century was directly linked with trade between Spain and the Philippines, as galleons were the ships used to carry spices back to Spain.
“The designer of the replica, Ignacio Fernandez Vial, is also a marine engineer,” he said. “He was searching [materials] at the Navy Museum in Madrid, as well as in the archives in Seville, where all the data since Columbus sailed to America is stored. He was able to find a lot of drawings and paintings of ships coming to Spain from the history documented by Marques de la Victoria, a member of royalty.”
Asked why people are so taken with replicas, de Miguel said it was because they were part of history.
“I think people want to know how people lived in the past,” he said. “They like to see, touch and feel what they were doing before.”
The ship will be open to visitors until 7pm today.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by