Four islets south of Penghu County are set to become the nation’s ninth national park on Saturday, the Ministry of the Interior said.
The South Penghu National Park comprises of Dongi (東吉嶼), Sigi (西吉嶼), Dongyuping (東嶼坪), and Siyuping (西嶼坪) islets, as well as their surrounding waters and is to cover a land area of 370 hectares and a sea area of 354.73km2 in the Taiwan Strait.
The national park is set to become the second-largest in Taiwan, with a total surface area of approximately 35,843.6 hectares.
Photo: CNA
The ministry said visitors to the islets are greeted by a view of giant columns of basalt rocks, formed by the rapid cooling of basaltic lava near the Earth’s surface.
Visitors can also see houses surrounded by walls built from coral and basalt, which are used to protect gardens from the Northeastern trade winds which blow through the islets every winter, the ministry said.
It added that scuba diving enthusiasts would not want to miss out on exploring the coasts of these islets, especially those of Siyuping Islet. Graced with an abundance of sea plumes and brain coral, the waters off Siyuping boast the highest seabed coverage rate among the four islets, at more that 50 percent, making the area the perfect habitat for fish, shellfish and crustaceans.
Photo: CNA
According to statistics published by the Marine National Park Headquarters, the population on the four islets has been decreasing over the past several decades due to poor access to transportation systems, the inconvenience of shipping in daily necessities and a lack of jobs. There are currently only about 50 residents living on the four islets, statistics show.
Since there are not yet any direct boats from Taiwan proper, those who wish to visit the new national park can book tours with ferry operators based in Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan, from where the journey takes two-and-a-half to three hours.
Marine National Park Headquarters director Yang Mo-lin (楊模麟) said sea conditions between May and August were best for traveling to the islets. He recommend staying with local bed and breakfasts, which he said can accommodate a dozen guests and only cost about NT$200 a day.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS