The sixth Formosa Railroad Bento Festival began yesterday at Taipei Railway Station, with people lining up to get a boxed meal from Taiwanese eateries and abroad.
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the event’s organizer, said that this year’s festival has more than 40 gastronomic treats from about 30 food providers and international railway operators.
The festival also houses a pop-up restaurant with a design based on an old Juguang Express car, which offers diners a unique sense of nostalgia, the TRA said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The number of international participants this year has fallen from last year due to travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the TRA said.
Railway operators from France, Japan and Switzerland have booths at this year’s festival, which runs through Monday, it said.
Twenty-seven railway companies and related businesses from five countries took part last year, the railway operator said.
Switzerland’s Glacier Express is offering packaged meals featuring sticky rice dumplings, while the Mont-Blanc Express from France is providing boxed desserts, the TRA said.
Several of the meals created by Japanese companies at the festival are shaped like trains, including a Tobu Railway Co Taiju (“Big Tree”) steam locomotive and two East Japan Railway Co bullet trains — a red E6 series and a blue E7 series, the TRA said.
Four Taiwanese hotels are participating for the first time, including the Courtyard restaurant at the Marriott and the Taipei branch of the AMBA, the TRA added.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS