A trove of artifacts, including coins dating to China’s Song Dynasty 900 years ago, have been uncovered at a construction site in Hualien’s Chongde (崇德) area, the Hualien Cultural Affairs Bureau said on Monday.
Workers reported finding what appeared to be the corner of a tomb while laying a foundation in Sioulin Township (秀林) last month, bureau Director Wu Chin-yi (吳勁毅) said.
The owner of the land agreed to let the bureau investigate the site before construction resumed, Wu said, adding that its work is expected to take another two months due to the abundance of items.
Photo courtesy of the Hualien Cultural Affairs Bureau
One of the most exciting finds so far is coins from the Xining period (1068 to 1077) of Song Dynasty Emperor Shenzong (神宗), Wu said.
While coins from that era have been found before in Taiwan — at the Lingding (嶺頂) site in Hualien’s Shoufeng Township (壽豐) — there is debate about whether they were deposited there at the time they were in circulation or disposed of much later, he said.
The coins, as well as bracelets and agate beads found at the Chongde site, showed that people living near the mouth of the Liwu River (立霧溪) at the time had much more extensive trade links with China than was previously known, Wu said.
Other items found at the site include fish bones, which are evidence that residents at the time were adept at fishing in the sea, as well as a lot of the gray and black pottery typical of the middle Iron Age in Taiwan, he said.
The artifacts would be put in a collection at the Hualien Archeological Museum, where they would be available for researchers of the region’s early history to study, Wu said.
Unlike most countries, Taiwan cannot use its country’s own name to compete in the Olympic Games or other major international sports events. Instead, it participates under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a name that causes confusion and sparks curiosity among many people, including an American director who explored the topic in his new documentary. Garret Clarke, the director of the 20-minute documentary What’s in a Name? A Chinese Taipei Story, said in an recent media interview said that he was motivated to make the documentary because he finds the name “Chinese Taipei” to be “weird.” The dispute that eventually created the name dates back
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to
The trailer of a new TV series portraying a Chinese attack on Taiwan has prompted a wave of emotional response and discussion in the nation. The teaser for Zero Day (零日攻擊), a Taiwanese production partly funded by the government and is expected to air next year, has given many viewers a sense of urgency. Its release this week coincided with annual air raid drills to prepare the nation’s 23 million residents in the event of an invasion by the Chinese military. “I burst into tears watching this. I feel heavy-hearted, and it is scary. However, this is what we need to face