Several public transport service providers reported record numbers of passengers on New Year’s Eve, as hundreds of thousands attended celebrations across Taiwan on Tuesday.
In New Taipei, the number of passengers traveling on the 14-stop Danhai light rail system achieved a record single-day high of more than 36,000, New Taipei Metro Corp said in a statement on Wednesday.
Many of those passengers traveled to the city’s Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里) districts to take part in afternoon activities or watch the 13-minute-and-14-second fireworks display which started at 8:25pm.
Photo: CNA
It took around 30 minutes for crowds at Fisherman’s Wharf, where a main stage was located, to leave the area by light rail services or shuttle buses, according to the city’s police department.
Meanwhile, Taoyuan Metro Corp and Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp posted record single-day ridership for their two metro lines.
The 22-station Taoyuan Airport MRT Line, which first opened in 2017, recorded a ridership of 195,603 during the 24-hour period starting at 6am on Tuesday, due to the countdown party near the high-speed rail station and a concert by rock band Mayday, Taoyuan Metro Corp said.
The 18-station Taichung Metro Green Line, which entered service in 2021, recorded 67,690 passengers between 6am on Tuesday and 2am yesterday morning, Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp said, which also posted its highest monthly ridership last month.
State-run Taiwan Railway Corp reported yesterday that 196,000 passengers nationwide used its 24 extra services on Tuesday, a New Year’s Eve record for the company.
The rail operator also said it set another record of more than 10,000 passengers taking extra services in eastern Taiwan.
In the nation’s capital, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said the total ridership on the city’s metro network in the 24 hours starting 6am on Tuesday hit 3.1 million, thanks to around 220,000 attending the Taipei 101 fireworks display and 40,000 watching pop star A-Mei’s (張惠妹) Taipei Dome concert.
The figure for this 24-hour period was second only to the 3.2 million reported on New Year’s Day in 2020.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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