Amusement parks across the nation have rolled out rebates and deals for special events to boost domestic tourism during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday.
The Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village in Taichung on Friday said that it has organized the only cherry blossom festival outside of Japan certified by the Japan Cherry Blossom Association.
The festival takes place from today to Feb. 28 and visitors can take the gondola to see the park’s 5,500 cherry trees, it said, adding that the flower season is to last until March 10.
Photo courtesy of the Leofoo Village Theme Park.
Lihpao Land in Taichung said that it hopes the Lihpao International Circuit, a three-course race track which was completed in November, would draw visitors to the park.
The main circuit — a 3.5km-long, 23-curve affair with an 20m elevation difference built to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile’s grade two standards — is cleared for purpose-built racers, supercars and sport cars, it said.
Additionally, the circuit has a cross-country track and is the only Commission Internationale de Karting-certified go-kart course in Taiwan, it said.
The E-Da Theme Park in Kaohsiung bills itself as the sole amusement park inspired by ancient Greece. It consists of three areas — the Parthenon, Santorini and Trojan Citadel — which at 15,000 ping (4,545m2) is the nation’s largest indoor amusement facility.
Leofoo Village Theme Park in Hsinchu this year has an Arabian-themed Sweet Charms Palace, a romantic outing for couples that is also family-friendly, it said.
The facility features bubble machines, kaleidoscopes and a 3m crystal ball, and stylists, princess gowns and parades are available for families with children, it said.
The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts yesterday apologized for forbidding children from copying paintings by freehand drawing, saying it welcomes visitors to make sketches of paintings on drawing tablets or sketchpads. The museum issued the remark after a museumgoer nicknamed “Mickeyelk Gesner” on Thursday posted on Facebook that her son had been sketching a painting by Pablo Picasso on a tablet computer at the exhibition “Capturing the Moment” on Wednesday when a museum worker told him to stop drawing. “The staff told us, ‘Only taking photos is allowed. No copying. This is a rule,’” she quoted the worker as saying. Physician Lee Chia-yan
ACCESS DENIAL: Beijing would likely take formation in the Philippine Sea, outside Taipei’s missile range, while its forces on the east would be a deterrent to foreign aid China is increasingly likely to employ a strategy of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) around Taiwan, which would use three carrier groups, a report from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. When China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, is completed next year, China would have three carriers, which would likely be used to surround Taiwan and implement an A2/AD strategy, it said, adding that efforts to strengthen China’s two other carriers — the Liaoning and the Shandong — appear to corroborate this. In the quarterly report, the council cited declassified documents from the Ministry of National Defense that categorized China’s carriers as
Two German warships are awaiting orders from Berlin to determine whether they would be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait next month, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing, a German commander said. While the US and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the Strait since 2002. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km waterway that divides the two sides. Taiwan strongly objects to these claims, saying only its people
Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday called for more international backing for Taiwan and a coordinated pushback against China’s claims over the nation. “The United States should elevate Taiwan on the world stage. You should no longer be silenced in global affairs,” Haley told an audience at the Ketagalan Forum, a Taipei conference focused on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. She called for Taiwan to become a full member of the UN, even though it is being blocked by China from representation in international bodies. While the US does not formally recognize Taiwan, it is the nation's strongest