Members of the University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) Bruin Marching Band yesterday arrived in Taiwan to perform during today’s Double Ten National Day celebrations.
The group of 127 students and 12 faculty, drawn from the 250-member UCLA ensemble, were greeted on arrival by General Association for Chinese Culture (GACC) members and the government’s National Day Preparatory Committee.
The UCLA band and a wind ensemble from Tokyo University of Agriculture’s Second High School were invited to take part in this year’s National Day celebrations to symbolize Taiwan’s friendly relations with the US and Japan, GACC secretary-general Lee Hou-ching (李厚慶) said.
Photo: CNA
The UCLA Bruin Marching Band is to start its performance today with renditions of Bruin Fanfare and Strike up the Band for UCLA. The latter was written for the university in 1936 by US composer George Gershwin, the GACC said.
The band is then to perform a medley of hits by late US Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla, before concluding with The Mighty Bruin, a song by the Oscar-winning composer Bill Conti, the GACC said.
The UCLA band members are also to travel to Chiayi to tour the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, the Cou Veoveoana Cultural and Creative Park and Fengtian Temple, at the invitation of Chayi County Commissioner Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁).
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
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