To make the best of the butterfly season and water lilies’ peak season, Kaohsiung is promoting a city tour that connects Lotus Pond (蓮池潭) in Zuoying District (左營) and the butterfly garden at Jinshi Lake (金獅湖) in Sanmin District (三民).
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau has planted Victoria water lilies at the southern end of the artificial lake, adjacent to a waterskiing area, bureau Director Hsu Chuan-sheng (許傳盛) said.
With the help of horticulture experts, the lilies have grown beautifully, with their leaves extending up to 1.5m in diameter, much to the delight of visitors, Hsu said.
Photo: Ko Yu-hao, Taipei Times
The Victoria amazonica water lily belongs to the family of Nymphaeaceae and has large disc-shaped leaves that lie flat on the water surface, he said.
Its leaves can grow to between 1m and 3m in diameter and can support between 50kg and 70kg — equal to the weight of three children, Hsu said.
However, the director was quick to add that boarding the lilies is prohibited for safety reasons, stressing that the plants are for viewing only.
The leaves of a Victoria water lily can cover an area between 6m2 and 10m2 if they are fully unfolded.
Its flowers are known for their rich fragrance and for changing color overnight from white to pink, he said.
The butterfly garden at Jinshi Lake is the largest butterfly house in the nation, and visitors can observe hundreds of butterflies of 30 different families during the summer, including the swallowtail butterfly, Pieridae, Nymphalidae and the Lycaenidae, he said.
The butterfly garden is a popular site for ecological summer camps for children, he said.
The pond and the lake are in downtown Kaohsiung and can easily be reached via public transport, Hsu said.
Tourists can join a city tour, while local residents need not travel to Tainan’s Beihe District (白河) if they want to see giant water lilies, he added.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS