Commemorative train ticket sets that mark Valentine’s Day with a play on words sold out in just over an hour after going on sale at a Taiwan Railways Administration station yesterday.
The tickets, dated Feb. 14, 2014, were for a one-way trip from Dalin (大林, pronounced similarly to “darling” in English) station in Chiayi County to Gueilai (歸來, literally: “come back”) station in Pingtung County, making the “Darling, come back” tickets a popular item for couples and collectors.
The tickets went on sale at 9am at Pingtung Station, but all 3,500 sets were sold out by 10:14am.
Photo: Lin Yi-chang, Taipei Times
Another 200 sets on sale at Dalin Station were snatched up in less than 20 minutes.
First in line at Dalin Station was a man surnamed Cheng (鄭) from nearby Chiayi City, who lined up at 5:08am.
Cheng said the ticket was in remembrance of his girlfriend.
The two never had the chance to spend Valentine’s Day together before she died of illness in November last year, he said.
“Hopefully this belated present can make up for my regrets,” Cheng added.
Over the years, the railway agency has launched a number of commemorative ticket packages that play on the names of specific stations.
One of the most popular was a commemorative ticket set featuring Yongkang (永康) and Baoan (保安) stations in Greater Tainan.
If read clockwise, the characters say yongbao ankang (forever in peace and health).
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but