More than 80 percent of hotels and bed-and-breakfast lodgings in Kenting National Park in Pingtung County are operating illegally, according to a Ministry of the Interior (MOI) investigation.
Of the 369 hotels and bed-and-breakfast lodgings inside the park, 309 never completed the registration process to obtain a business license.
The probe was prompted by the recent uproar over the Yoho Beach Resort, which has been operating illegally for 14 years without environmental impact assessment approval.
According to a tally conducted at the end of 2011, there were 54 hotels with 16 or more rooms within the park in Hengchun Township (恆春), while there were 315 with less than 16 rooms, which are categorized as bed-and-breakfasts, a ministry official said.
“After checking with the Pingtung County Government, we found only nine hotels and 54 lodgings had completed the legal registration process needed to operate,” the official said.
Twenty-five of the illegal hotels could receive government supervision and guidance to amend their registration and complete the legalization process, he said, but the remainer were unlikely to receive approval.
Of the 54 legal bed-and-breakfast establishments, three had more than 16 rooms, a possible sign that they had underreported their room numbers during registration. Officials said the county government would conduct follow-ups to determine whether they should be fined.
“Fines will be imposed on these illegal operations according to the National Park Act (國家公園法), the Act for the Development of Tourism (發展觀光條例) and related laws. Wherever possible, government agencies will try to help them register and become a legal operation,” the official said.
“If there are any delays in these actions, then fines will be imposed. If these operations are illegal, then orders will be issued to tear them down,” he said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS