The Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday that it is scheduled to open 18 lighthouses to the public to turn them into tourist attractions.
At the beginning of this year, the management of the lighthouses was transferred from the Ministry of Finance’s Customs Administration to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Maritime and Port Bureau.
Bureau Director-General Chi Wen-jong (祁文中), whose father worked as a keeper at the Chihou Lighthouse (旗后燈塔) in Greater Kaohsiung, said that the nation has 35 lighthouses, 34 of which are still in use and 11 are open to visitors.
“Tourists are banned from entering most lighthouses to prevent them from damaging lighthouse equipment. The facilities inside the lighthouse may not be safe for visitors, either,” Chi said. “However, they are allowed to enter the lighthouse grounds and take pictures. Some of the lighthouses do not have gates, so visitors can roam in the parks surrounding them.”
The bureau also announced during a ceremony yesterday that the Baisha Cape (白沙岬) Lighthouse in Taoyuan County and the Green Island Lighthouse are now open to visitors, while five more lighthouses would be opened over the next three years.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) found through her research into the nation’s lighthouses a list of lighthouse keepers published by the Customs Administration in 1945, on which the name of Chi Wen-jong’s father, Chi Da (祁達), was listed.
She framed the list and presented it to him at the ceremony.
Chi Wen-jong said that he was “very surprised” to see the document and he knew very little about his father’s days as a lighthouse keeper.
“All I know is that my father was among the first group of local lighthouse keepers trained by the Customs Office in Shanghai and that he was later assigned to guard the lighthouse in Kaoshiung [now Greater Kaohsiung] for two years,” he said.
The nation’s lighthouses were all run by Britons at one point. His father would use gestures to communicate with his British colleagues, Chi Wen-jong said.
He said that his father later changed jobs, joining a shipping firm because life as a lighthouse keeper did not combine well with raising a family. Chi Da died at the age of 78.
To enrich lighthouse tours, Chi Wen-jong said that he plans to find other lighthouse keepers and ask them to tell their stories.
“My father kept an oil lamp that he used at work. I am sure his colleagues also kept similar items. Rather than letting family members throw these items away, we can collect them for an exhibit. We can also launch an oral history project to interview retired lighthouse keepers,” Chi said.
Baisha Cape was built more than 100 years ago with red bricks held together by a mixture of sticky rice, dark brown sugar and lime.
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Taiwanese professional baseball should update sports stadiums and boost engagement to enhance fans’ experience, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview on Friday. The league has urged Farglory Group and the Taipei City Government to improve the Taipei Dome’s outdated equipment, including relatively rudimentary television and sound systems, and poor technology, he said. The Tokyo Dome has markedly better television and sound systems, despite being 30 years old, because its managers continually upgraded its equipment, Tsai said. In contrast, the Taipei Dome lacked even a room for referees
RSS