The Coast Guard Administration and Kaohsiung port police will move their facilities at Shaochuantou (哨船頭) to make room for a project to restore historic piers in the area, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said on Wednesday last week.
The Hsingbin Project seeks to establish a heritage site dedicated to the city’s maritime history, Lai said, adding that the project will restore the Shaochuantou piers and connect them to the former British consulate at Takao (打狗).
Shaochuantou’s name comes from an old service dock, called shaochuan (哨船), used by the Qing Dynasty navy, Kaohsiung Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Lin Shang-ying (林尚瑛) said.
Photo: Courtesy of Kaohsiung Bureau of Cultural Affairs
At the time, Takao Harbor was a major international port and Shaochuantou was its primary dock, handling large commercial vessels and warships, Lin said.
The Northern Gate, 50m from the dock, was then armed with British-made Armstrong guns, which were supported by a gun battery on Chihoushan (旗後山), demonstrating the port’s strategic value, he said.
Urban development has destroyed much of the historical harbor and the Harbor No. 1 Safety Inspection Office building cut off the former British consulate building from the historic site, Lin said.
Photo: Copied by Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
Negotiations with port police and coast guard officials were difficult, he said, but added that restoring the piers is the right thing to do.
Lin said he was worried that abandoning the project at this stage would kill it.
Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Shih Che (史哲) attributed the successful outcome of the negotiations to Lai’s “superhuman tenacity,” adding that the lawmaker has held more than 20 rounds of negotiations since September last year to push the project.
The relocation of a safety inspection office was on Wednesday last week authorized by Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森), city officials said.
A residential building for customs officials near the former British consulate will also be relocated, Lin said.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS