The Yilan County Government yesterday evacuated 170 tourists who were stranded at the Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area following a landslide.
After checking the road conditions in the morning, park officials asked the tourists to assemble after breakfast.
Officers from the Yilan County Police Bureau’s Sansing Precinct started leading the tourist convoy down the mountain at 10:25am, the county said.
Photo: CNA
The Luodong Forest District Office said the park would remain closed as cleanup work continues.
The landslide occurred at about 7:20am on Monday at the 1.5km mark along the main road leading up to Taipingshan (太平山) near the park’s ticket booth, spreading debris across a 3,500m2 area.
The incident trapped 228 people inside the park — 58 park employees and 170 tourists ranging in age from three to 68 — who were provided free accommodation in Taipingshan Village.
Although authorities had cleared one lane of the blocked road on Monday afternoon, they delayed evacuating the tourists due to ongoing danger of falling rocks, the forest office said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon this morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan between Friday and Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The storm, which as of 8am was still 1,100km southeast of southern Taiwan, is currently expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, the CWA said. Because of its rapid speed — 28kph as of 8am — a sea warning for the storm could be issued tonight, rather than tomorrow, as previously forecast, the CWA said. In terms of its impact, Usagi is to bring scattered or
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
MESSAGE: The ministry said China and the Philippines are escalating regional tensions, and Taiwan should be included in dialogue mechanisms on an equal footing Taiwan has rejected renewed sovereignty claims over the South China Sea by the Philippines and China by reaffirming its sovereignty and rights under international law over the disputed area. “The Republic of China [ROC] enjoys all rights to island groups and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea in accordance with international law and maritime laws,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement yesterday. Other countries’ attempts to claim sovereignty over the South China Sea do not change the fact that the ROC holds sovereignty over the region, the ministry said. The MOFA statement came after
RSS