TRANSPORTATION
Alishan train to resume
The Alishan Forest Railway in Chiayi County is to resume full operations on Saturday, 15 years after part of the line was closed due to damage by Typhoon Morakot, the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office said. Eighty-five tickets for the first train on Saturday were sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale at 2pm yesterday, when online bookings for tickets from that day to July 16 started, office deputy director Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. All tickets for direct services from Chiayi Station to Alishan Station from Saturday to Wednesday next week were also snapped up within 20 minutes, Chou said. Following the completion of the new No. 42 tunnel, the railway is to reopen with a new timetable and four trains daily, he said. The full fare for a one-way journey from Chiayi to Alishan is NT$600. Ticket prices are unchanged, but fares might be adjusted after nine newly purchased locomotives and 48 cars go into service in the second half of next year, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office
MILITARY
PLA planes, ships detected
Nineteen Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and vessels were detected in the airspace and waters around Taiwan in the 24-hour period starting at 6am on Monday, including aircraft flying as close as 47 nautical miles (87km) from Keelung, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. Thirteen Chinese military aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity, of which 10 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension, entering the nation’s air defense identification zone, flight information released by the ministry showed. Six PLA vessels were detected in waters near Taiwan during the same 24-hour period, the information showed. The ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation and had deployed combat air patrol aircraft, coastal missile systems and navy vessels in response.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Marshallese minister arrives
Joe Bejang, the education, sports and training minister of the Marshall Islands, arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a five-day stay, during which he is to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on expanded cooperation. The agreement is to cover enhanced collaboration between the two nations on education and sports, and expanded exchanges on Austronesian cultural research, language teacher training and volunteer dispatching, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Bejang is also to meet with Marshallese students, as well as visit Ming Chuan University, the National Center for Traditional Arts and the National Human Rights Museum, the ministry said. The visit is Bejang’s first to Taiwan since he assumed his post in January as part of a new government.
LEISURE
Swim event expanded
The Sun Moon Lake Swimming Carnival in September is to accept 25,000 participants in groups of at least five this year, the Puli Four-Season Swimming Association, which organizes the event, said yesterday. As registration for last year’s event filled up in three days, the association has increased the participation cap to 25,000, it said, adding that 24,636 swan in last year’s event. Registrations open next month, it said. The Sept. 15 event is scheduled for two days before Mid-Autumn Festival, the Nantou County Government said. As Mid-Autumn Festival is on a Tuesday this year and the day before is a regular work day, the Sunday event should not interfere with holiday travel, it said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
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