Legislative Yuan Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) on Tuesday arrived in Japan’s Yonaguni Island to promote parliamentary and tourism exchanges between the two countries.
You is leading a 100-member delegation, including Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰), Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙), and local travel agents and medical service providers.
“I felt like going on an excursion, very excited,” You told reporters before leaving Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳) for Yonaguni.
Photo Courtesy of The Legislative Yuan
There is no regular ferry services between Suao and Yonaguni, but You said he hopes his visit could lay the foundation for such services and other travel packages between the two destinations for Taiwanese and Japanese tourists.
If only 1 percent of the 2 million Japanese tourists who visit Taiwan each year take a Suao-Yonaguni ferry, it would significantly boost tourism in Yilan, You said.
Yonaguni is Japan’s closest island to Taiwan, lying only 110km east of Yilan.
Photo: Reuters
In Yonaguni, You was to meet with Japanese lawmaker Keiji Furuya, who is also chairman of the Japan-Republic of China Diet Members’ Consultative Council.
The delegation traveled to Yonaguni on a cruise liner operated by North & South Shipping Co. The journey took two hours.
Yonaguni covers 29km2 and has a population of 1,700 people as well as a well-preserved natural environment.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS